Carnival Of Rust
by WeaverOfFates
Summary: A man has choices and Billy chose to remain in Rapture to save a woman who might not be alive. When a voice recording leads him to the old circus, he will find out there is more to living than simply surviving and things harder than living. Will he chose to save that which cannot be saved or will he chose to save himself? We all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us.
1. Prologue Welcome to the Carnival

Prologue

_"Come feed the rain, because I'm thirsty for your love dancing underneath the skies of lust. Come feed the rain, because without your love my life ain't nothing but this carnival of rust."_

- _Carnival of Rust by Poets of the Fall_

Billy stood unmoving, silent amongst the rubble. Once, when he was a child this had been his favorite place in this once underwater heaven, Rapture. It was where his mother and father had taken him often, the Carnival. It had been so vibrant and full of life. Its cheerful music floated through the throngs of voices and the never ending giggles of children. All of it was still loud in his memories.

It was the last place he had seen his father alive and his mother sane.

Now he stood alone, almost eighteen give or take a year. He couldn't help but stare bitterly at the poster that mockingly welcoming him. Its color had faded into muted oranges, blues, and pinks from the years of neglect. The happy faces of the performers had been painted over with dried blood to look like masquerade masks. Beside the poster, ticket booths were turned over, smeared with dried blood, and he could smell the corpse that still rotted in one. Bullet holes decorated the walls, floor, and even the ticket booth.

The only thing that remained the same as he remembered was the music that floated through the silence. It was a distant, slow, mournful tune from deep inside The Carnival. The slow, turning of a music box fueled the childhood terror inside him. Images of clowns carrying bloodstained knives, their own clothes dripping with blood began to float inside his head. The scene of mutilated bodies, the ground covered with blood. Memories, or nightmares, he couldn't be sure anymore.

Billy could hear his own breath quickening with terror just with the thought. His heart was pounding wildly in his chest. His muscles tensed, pleading with him to turn away, but he couldn't. Without taking his eyes off the poster before him, he hit the play button of the tape player in his hand.

"I'm in your room, I've been here for weeks now . . ."

Her airy voice filled his ears. Her soft voice relaxed his tensed muscles. It was tinkling, musical, beautiful, and out of place amongst the repulsiveness around him.

"Everyone is long gone, but I hear music floating through it all . . . I press my ear against the wall," he could hear the regret in her voice. "but it's never your voice. I only wanted . . . I only wanted to save you, but now . . . who is going to save me?"

If she had been able to fight the tears back, they had escaped into her voice. The recording ended abruptly, and as short as it was, it was enough to give him back his courage. He took a deep breath to steady his beating heart. This recording was dated, two months ago. There was a chance that this recorded voice was still alive somewhere. The only clue he had to go on was the carnival music recorded in the background. If she was here, whoever she was, he would find her and he would save her.

* * *

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave comments when you feel like it- keeps a writer motivated ^-^. Warning; story is about Rapture- so there will be violence, gore, and horror. Thanks to my Twin for editing- sorry about the nightmares.


	2. Chapter 1 The Mirror Entrance

Chapter One: The Mirror Entrance

_"Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me."_

_ - Psalms 55:5 (KJV)_

His shotgun was securely strapped to his back, his pistols fully loaded, and a wrench firmly placed in his hand. Billy passed the poster without a second glance, and entered into the Carnival's ticket room. In his memories he recalled a large, round room packed with people eagerly waiting to get their tickets and go inside. There had been so much noise; people talking, children squealing, music playing, and everyone was laughing. Now, there was nothing but darkness awaiting him.

The door softly shut behind him, silencing the eerie playing of the music box. There was something more sinister about the new silence around him. Whoever had been listening knew he was here. Looking around he saw there was a soft glow coming from the sides of the room, but before he could move a bright spot light blinded him. He shielded his eyes with the hand holding the wrench, but it did no good.

"Welcooome one! Welcome Aaaa . . . aaallll!"

The last words were interrupted by the scratching of vinyl record. Besides the voice there was no other noise. As his eyes adjusted, he quickly scanned the room for danger. Rubble littered the floor, benches had been broken and turned over on the floor, but he seemed to be alone, for now.

"Welcome! . . . Welcome! . . . Welcome!"

The disturbingly cheerful voice repeated the same greeting over and over, its record scratched and neglected. Billy stepped out of the blinding light and couldn't help but think the owner of the voice had probably been murdered years ago. Taking a better look around, there was nothing special in the room but blood stains, a few rotted corpses, an empty glass display on his left, and a grotesque one to his right. His curiosity pulled him to walk over and examine the thing behind the broken glass. Below was a button that he pressed to hear the pre-recorded message.

"From beyond the surface of-of-of," the message began to skip, but corrected itself, "of the ocean, this horrid creature was found and brought to us by the founder of Rapture! Andrew Ryan!"

Billy scoffed in agitation; there was no corner of Rapture that Ryan hadn't gotten his hands on before his death. Rapture was the underwater city of Andrew Ryan. He spent his fortune on building a city of dreams and bringing those he felt were worthy to live here, but all he created was a city of nightmares that he refused to let anyone escape from. He cut the city off from the surface world and the sun, and all those who remembered it died off, mostly by murder. Those who were left, like those children who had never seen the surface or felt the sun, like Billy, he made sure to scare from ever wanting to go.

The voice continued in hushed, raspy tones to frighten little children who once might have crowded around. "With no protection from the sun, her very skin burned and melted into the monster you see before you today. We call her, Lava Lady!"

A recorded musical band began to play an eerie tune as Billy looked at the wax statue before him. He had seen truly hideous things, splicers mostly, but this was truly disgusting. There were still patches of white, fake skin, but most had been charred black and hung from her limbs in curtains as if it had been melted. The veins that ran along her hands and up her arms were glowing red as if burning lava ran through them instead of blood. Her dress was that of a flapper, showing more melted and deformed skin.

The bones of her legs were bent in angles that would have been painful to have endured. Her wax face would have been the most terrifying of it all for children. One side had been so melted the eye was almost completely undistinguishable and hung loosely. The other half was welted, burned skin cherry red with one blood red eye frozen open. The flesh at the corner of the mouth had been eaten away, exposing the rotting gum and teeth beneath.

Billy wanted to look away, but couldn't. The only thing that tore his eyes away was the booming voice behind him. He wildly tore his pistol from his side and aimed it around as the voice shouted, "Come on in!"

His heart pounding, his breath racing, he readied to pull the trigger on anything that moved, but the room remained still and silent. The greeting message must have corrected itself and finished. His heart still pounding, he lowered his weapon, but didn't take his finger off the trigger. Turning to take one final look at the display, a new fear crept into his heart.

What was behind the glass was truly more disturbing than what had been there only seconds before. Nothing. The yellow painted walls were bare, with no hint to a trap door or escape hatch. The metal bottom was empty as well except for blood stains and a cassette tape.

In Billy's mind a memory was forming from long ago. He had been just a small child and his parents had thought that he had been long asleep. They didn't know he had awoken from a nightmare and stood outside their bedroom door.

_"Louise was murdered today," his father had murmured softly, sadly. "I'm very sorry dear."_

_"Louise," his mother's voice was filled with so much pain, Billy stopped from knocking on the door. "Our neighbor? . . . Do you realize . . . Do you realize all of our neighbors have been murdered? How? Was it . . . it wasn't here was it?"_

_"No," Billy's father answered her. "It was in Fort Frolic-"_

_"What was she doing there," Billy's mother sounded angry now. "All the shops are closed down, the casinos are run by spliced up mobsters, and Ryan gave the key to the place to that freak Sander Cohen!"_

_"I don't know why she was there honey," his father tried to console her, "but I think she was looking for her daughter. They say. . . they say she is a Little Sister now."_

_Billy didn't understand what a Little Sister was at the time. He could hear his mother moan in agony and disgust before she spoke again. "Do you know what they say Cohen is doing for art now? He takes the corpses of murder victims and covers them in plaster. He is making art with the bodies of _murdered_ people Harold! They are all around Fort Frolic, and some aren't dead! The newspapers are saying that _splicers_ are covering themselves with plaster. They stand there like some ugly mannequin and when someone gets too close, they slit their throat! Oh Harold . . . we never should have came here."_

That was the first time Billy had heard of those living, murderous, mannequins, but it hadn't been the last. He heard rumors of them until there was no one left to speak of them. He momentarily wondered if he had been looking at a real person, but quickly pushed the horrific thought away. The torture that would have led to such a deformation would have had to kill any human, splicer or not. As quickly as he dared, he pulled the cassette tape from the display and slowly backed away.

He pocketed it, still keeping his eyes on the display. It was probably a trick to make kids think she was still alive he tried to convince himself, but in Rapture, nothing was impossible He kept his eyes glued to the display until he stood outside the entrance door. He huffed in frustration as he realized it was covered in fresh blood. There had been a killing here and recently.

Surviving had been the only thing he ever learned to do in Rapture. There were rules to staying alive here in this underwater hell. One was go nowhere you weren't familiar with. Rapture was riddled with hidden passage ways, tunnels, pipelines, not to mention the ceiling crawling "spider splicers" that could drop down on you from any roof. He had already broken that first rule. The second rule was open no door and travel no hall that had fresh blood because the murderer, or murderers were probably still around. He was about to break that rule too.

His pistol pointed before him, he threw the door open quickly. Welcoming music flooded his ears, but the sound of his bullets drowned him out. The flicker of another man sent the adrenaline pumping through his brain, and his finger pulling the trigger quickly. Panic surged as he realized he was surrounded by more splicers than he could count. As he emptied his clip, there was only the sound of falling glass, but none of them made a move.

It wasn't until his clip was empty that he realized there had never been anyone there at all. Around him was nothing more than a massacre of mirrors. How had he forgotten the mirror maze that the visitors had to get through before getting to the Carnival? What a waste of bullets.

He angrily reloaded his gun as he stepped carefully around the broken glass. The only way he was going to the real circus arena was to find his way out of the maze, great. He remembered just following his daddy as he laughed at the mirrors. There was a blood smear to his right, so he decided to go left.

Following the twisting hallway of mirrors, his image danced around him in bizarre patterns. Some versions of him were tall and menacing, others were fat and silly. The rest were simply the mirror image of himself. He could see his bright blond hair dull with dirt and grime. Dried, smeared blood and dirt covered his face. His black trousers and suspenders had faded to a dull brown with time. The white shirt he wore was no longer white. The only thing that was untouched by time in Rapture were his vibrantly blue eyes staring back at him through the glass and repeated hundreds of times. The copies of him never seemed to end. They stretched in every angle around him hundreds of times so that there seemed to be no end to the halls, and no escape. How he ever found this entertaining he didn't know as he took another corner that lead to another never ending hall, but waiting for him in the mirrors wasn't his face.

Instead, it was every child's worse nightmare. It was more horrible than any splicer he had ever had the misfortune to see. It was a clown from his worst nightmares. His blood painted face leered at Billy a hundred times on all sides of him. He wore the masquerade mask most splicers wore but looked as if it still had flesh hanging from the corners. His brightly colored suit was covered in a fresh coat of blood, as was the oversized knife in his hand

Billy lost it.

He began firing madly at the hundreds of clowns. Glass shattered leaving dark holes in place of mirror, but the horrifying clown kept slowly coming from all sides. His cracked, bleeding lips grew into a wider smile, exposing the back rotting teeth. It was just like his nightmares, but he knew he wasn't going to wake up.

"Dammit!"

Billy could barely steady his hands as he loaded his last round into the pistol. The killer clown let out a manic laugh as Billy began shooting again. Splicers were scary, but this was nightmarish! With each bullet one more mirror shattered, and the clown grew one step closer. Panic and utter terror clouded Billy's mind making all coherent thoughts disappear into the cloud of fear except one. _You are going to die Billy Parson._

He could hear the click of the gun signaling it was empty, but panic just kept pulling the trigger. The clown let out a manic, high pitch screech that Billy understood as laughing. The clown was so close now, and on all sides, that he could smell the stench of blood and death surrounding him. It was suffocating him, gaging him, making the fear swell inside his throat choking him so that he could not even scream one last time in terror. In a last ditch effort he threw it at one of the clown's head, but instead of hearing glass crack, he heard the cracking of bones. The clown's murderous laugh turned into an ear splitting scream of rage.

The clown raised his knife and lunged for Billy and for a moment he froze. He had been attacked just like this by splicers more times than he could count, but there was something more terrifying when it was a clown. He could see this playing out like one of those silent slasher films. He could just imagine the clown cutting into him over and over again with that manic smile, enjoying the sight of his blood.

Then he remembered his shotgun. Pulling it off his back he pointed the barrel at the clown's head, who was now only arm's length away, and pulled the trigger. The powerful blow sent the clown flying backwards through the air. He crashed into another mirror, shattering even more glass that cut into his back. Silently, and hopefully dead, he crumbled to the floor.

It was a long moment that Billy stood there with his heart still pounding. Timidly he took a step forward. He hated to waste bullets, but this time he would make an exception. He fired one more shot into the unmoving clown's back, and waited. It wasn't uncommon for splicers to play dead. They were good at it, but this one didn't move again and Billy finally took his eyes off him.

His eyes immediately caught the opening of a hallway to the right of where the clown laid dead. He squinted and his body nearly sagged in relief when he spotted a door! Billy scowled at the dead clown before he traveled on wobbly legs toward and down the hall. Half way through he decided to look back one last time.

"You've got to be kidding me," he growled, arming his shotgun yet again.

The clown was nowhere to be seen.

"Why can't you damn splicers just stay dead," he screamed in fury, still backing up towards the door but there was no answer.

He felt his back brush up against the wooden door. He fumbled for the handle, still keeping his eyes on the bloodied spot on the floor where the clown had been. Opening the door he peered inside, and momentarily forgot the clown.

There was a Little Sister inside watching him. Her glowing green eyes were wide with curiosity.

* * *

I don't understand why there wasn't clowns in the game, it would have been double creep... or maybe there was and I just don't remember. Anyway, thanks for reading. Again feel free to comment. All comments accepted except haters- they will simply be deleted and not responded to. Constructive criticism is accepted as well. Thanks again to my Twin for editing and polishing and again, sorry for the nightmares:)


	3. Chapter 2 Little Sister

Chapter 2 Little Sister

"_Dear yellow-eyed girl. My name is Billy. I saw you the other day by the merry-go-round and I think you are very pretty . . ." – Billy, Bioshock 2 _

1958

_"Tell me," she seethed, her hand wrapped around his arm growing hot. "Tell me what you were looking at!"_

_Billy was just a kid, but he knew when the Adam took over- and he knew what it could do. It was the time when Rapture was quickly descending into insanity. Ryan was losing control of the city to the founder of Adam Frank Fontaine, terrified of the influence of Doctor Sofia Lamb, and fighting against smugglers. He had decreed smuggling items from the surface into the city a hanging crime. People were hung in the streets or simply disappearing and their shops closed down, just like Billy's father Harold. _

_Adam had begun to become more common too. Billy was too young to understand the science behind it, but even as a kid he knew it was evil. It was made to make people stronger, smarter, faster, and have godly abilities such as throwing lightening and hurling fire. It was easy too, all you needed was a syringe. They called it splicing. Adam did all they said it would and more. It drove people insane, their minds couldn't handle it. Babies were strangled in cribs, best friends were butchered in the streets, but that didn't keep Adam from being everywhere. _

_It was on signs, in the doctors office, in vending machines in stores, and even as jingles over the intercom systems. Billy's mother, Gloria, had always used a little Adam. She had even been prescribed some while being pregnant with Billy, but with Harold gone she spent every last cent on Adam. They were so poor they were forced to move to Pauper's Drop, the slums of the slums. Billy wasn't afraid of the creaking pipes, or the criminal neighbors that spoke of planned murders unknowing that Billy could hear them through the walls. He was afraid of his new mother though._

"_I said," Gloria shrieked over his painful cries as her hand began to burn his skin, the effect of Adam. "What were you looking at?"_

"_The merry-go-round," Billy lied, tears filling his eyes. "I was looking at the merry-go-round!"_

_They were living in Dionysus park now with Doctor Sofia Lamb who had cleaned his mother of her Adam habit. It had been months since she had last spliced or lost control, but after she had caught him staring at the Little Sister and her protector the Big Daddy, she was relapsing. _

_To his relief she flung him into the wall. His head smacked against the metal wall, but he was grateful to be out of her clutches. He glanced down at the welted, red skin on his forearm and whimpered as she continued to shout at him._

"_Do you think I am stupid, Billy! I know what you were looking at! You were looking at that Big Daddy!"_

_Billy said nothing, cowering against the wall. Adam was so popular, it was selling faster than it could be made. That was how Little Sisters were born. They were sweet, baby girls stolen from Fountain's orphanage, or worse Ryan stole them from the families themselves. They turned them into monsters that could make the Adam faster and when that wasn't enough, they sent them into the streets to gather the used Adam directly from the blood of corpses. Of course, with so many crazed splicers trying to kill the Little Sisters to steal the Adam, Big Daddies were made to protect them. _

"_Have you forgotten your daddy already," she continued shouting, her hands burning red with flames. "Have you forgotten how he loved you and took care of you- of us! That is your daddy! Not those monsters! Do you understand?"_

"_Yes, mama," he whimpered, but he didn't think she could hear him. _

_Her fists were raised, the flames growing longer and licking at the air around them. He knew she was about to throw them at him. She had that murderous look in her eyes, and although she was looking at him, he knew she couldn't see him anymore. Adam had taken her to a dark place and he would have died that day if Doctor Sofia Lamb hadn't came running in to save him. _

_What he could never tell his mother was that he wasn't looking at the Big Daddy, but the Little Sister. She might have no longer been human, but she was still a child. She sung, she played. She was just standing there, staring at the merry-go-round. Her yellow eyes were wide open with wonderment. He could still remember her eyes, her long brown hair tied in a blue bow and the matching blue dress. He was too young to understand what Rapture had turned her into. _

Now staring at this Little Sister, he knew. He knew she should have a Big Daddy near by, ready to kill him and any other man that got near the child. He knew she should be running away from him, but she wasn't. He shut the door behind him, locking it for good measures to keep the clown away, but she didn't move.

Her yellow eyes were staring at him, just as the Little Sister from his memories stared at that merry-go-round. The room they were in was bare. There was a giant circus ring with seats encircling it, but nothing more. Large bones of long deceased elephants were littered on the ring and in the stadium, some in halves.

"When will the show start," she asked.

Her voice was had the innocent, high pitch ring of a child, but beneath the innocence was the deeper tone of the monster almost as if two voices were speaking at once. Her wide eyes looked around expectantly, excitedly and her expression was off as if she were in an altogether different world than Billy. Billy could only stare in bewilderment. Little Sister only spoke to one person, their Big Daddy. Everyone else was a threat to their life. When he didn't answer she asked again, "When will the show start?"

He shook his head, taking a look around at the destruction around them. Seats were ripped from their spots with blood dried onto the cushions. Corpses still rotted in a few of the seats. He knew that she had to be seeing something else to believe that a show would ever be performed here again.

He looked back at her, but she was sniffing at the air. With a smile growing on her face she announced excitedly, "I smell Aaaaadaaaam! This way!"

She took off running across the ring, leaving Billy in a numbing state shock and confusion. As if to mock him, the speakers came to life and the recorded message he had heard since childhood repeated in a friendly voice, "A Rapture reminder, approaching the Little Sister is a criminal offence."

He took off after her, reaching the other side of the ring as she paused outside the opposite door. She turned to waive him on, shouting, "Come on slow poke! Angels don't wait for slow pokes!"

She pushed through the door, unaware that there was still a crazy killer clown lurking somewhere. The thought made Billy want to turn and run back to his home, but he stupidly followed her anyway. When he entered the next room, he found her there already bent over the corpse in the middle of a second circus ring. It was a clown too, but very obviously dead and rotting. She pulled out the long needled gun attached to a baby's bottle to collect the blood.

"You've got to be kidding me! Wait," Billy shouted, quickly pulling out his shotgun to reload. "No, um, no Adam today!"

She looked up from her corpse and gave him a look as if he were the craziest person she had ever laid eyes on. He didn't feel to bright either, how could he stop a Little Sister from doing what she was made to do, gather Adam? In a matter of seconds, the smile was back on her face as she pointed the needle tip at the corpse's neck, "I promise it won't even hurt!"

She stabbed the point deep into the neck with a toothy grin of a girl doing something good, "See!"

Billy couldn't help the groan that escaped him. He had seen Little Sisters start to gather, and when they did he always got as far away as he could. When a Little Sister started to gather, war began. Splicers appeared out of no where, ready to kill the Little Sister and rip the Adam out of her. That's why Little Sisters had Big Daddies to protect them. They once had been men, but now they too were monsters with their skin and organs grafted into diving suits. They no longer could speak, they no longer could think, all they could do was protect the Little Sister.

Still, he couldn't leave her alone.

Reaching into his bag he pulled out the four mines he had with him. Quickly he placed one in front of the door he had entered and another between that and the Little Sister. Racing across the room he placed the third and fourth outside the second door. He scoured a nearby corpse, pulling off him a Tommy gun fully loaded as the first war cry sounded from far away. He could hear the murderous, blood lust in the cry and it chilled his blood.

The Little Sister seemed to hear nothing, pulling out the needle just to stab the corpse again in another spot. He could see the baby's bottle was already one thirds full, at least she had found a ripe one. Then the battle began.

A booming explosion told him the first of the splicers had arrived. Two bodies went flying through the air, but that didn't stop those behind. Billy pulled out his six barrel shot gun and shot two bucks into the head of a splicer. He took out two more splicers as the third and fourth bomb resounded from behind, making his ear ring and the air cloud with smoke and dirt.

Nearby bullets clanged into a metal seat barely missing him. He blindly shot through the clouds as he hurried behind a toppled row of metal seats for protection. Bullets sounded from all around as he reloaded his shot gun.

"He's got a gun! He's got a gun," a splicer warned the others.

Moving quickly, Billy aimed the shot gun over the seat, finding the one that had been shouting and taking him out. There were at least ten more storming the Little Sister, who seemed oblivious to the world around her. To his annoyance she was singing!

"There's a land called LILLIPOPPY! And living there is the LILLIPOP!"

There were too many for his shotgun, so Billy pulled out the machine gun. He squeezed the trigger and began to cut down the splicers. The gun fought against him, kicking back and missing more than it hit. A few splicers got smart and ducked for cover behind fallen seats in the ring, while the rest fell dead to the ground.

"I'll go there soon with MISTER BUBBLES! And we'll search the place from TAIL TO TOP!"

The initial wave of splicers was over with at least half down. Billy retreated behind his shelter as bullets began to whiz past his face again. There were at least three more shooting at him. This was a relatively small group, he thought and if he were a Big Daddy, he wouldn't need to hide. Quickly he began reloading.

"And if we find no TATTLELAMBY! And if I eye no PORQUINAUT!"

The singing bullets silenced, and he could hear them beginning to reload. He took a deep breath, realized he was probably going to die, and jumped over the seats. With his shotgun aimed, he found the first splicer rising over some charred seats and fired. The splicer fell with a clang against metal, but Billy didn't watch him fall as was already searching for the next splicer. He was only a few feet away his gun already pointed at Billy, but Billy was faster. He fired two more shots, the first hitting the splicer's chest and the second his head before falling.

"Perhaps we'll dine on HAM AND JAMMY!"

Billy was closing on the Little Sister whose bottle was almost full, and he could see the final splicer. His pistol too was already pointed and his finger already pulling the trigger. Billy let the last three shots free from his gun.

"If we can't find the LILIPOP!"

The Little Sister jumped to her feet, pulling the needle out of the corpse with a toothy grin. Taking the bottle she began downing the bloody contents as the final splicer fell limp to the floor. Billy let out a shaky breath, too numb to even appreciate the fact that he had single handedly protected a Little Sister and lived.

"This angle's all done now! Yay," the Little Sister cheered as she reattached the bottle to the gun.

She looked up at Billy and the smile she wore was infectious. He couldn't help but smile with her, but soon her grin was gone. Concern and confusion covered her face and Billy worried maybe she was truly seeing him and realizing he wasn't her Big Daddy.

"You're hurting. Make it better!"

She pointed a tiny finger to his abdomen and he looked down. The white shirt under the suspenders was slowly turning blood red. He hadn't felt himself get shot, but he had. He still couldn't feel the pain, but he hastily unbuttoned the bottom buttons to look at the damage.

"Oooo," the Little Sister giggled as he exposed his skin and she covered her eyes.

The bullet was lodged into the skin as if it was lodged into metal. He always wished his mother had never taken Adam while she was pregnant with him or after him, but today it saved his life. He had never once spliced, but because she had while he was growing inside of her he had the positive effects of Adam. He was faster than a normal man should be. He was stronger. What was better, his skin was tougher.

"I know who can fix it," the child giggled with her eyes still covered, "but she's hiding."

Billy re-buttoned his shirt as the first pangs of pain began to kick in. "What do you mean she's hiding?"

"She doesn't want to be found, silly," she giggled, peeking through her fingers and then taking them off her face, "but I know how to find her. This way!"

The Little Sister twirled around, her dirty smock billowing around her. With an excited jump, she took off once again. Billy just hoped this time they wouldn't come across another "angel." She led him out of the ring and through a door to the side labeled as the dressing room.

"The hidey hole is here somewhere," the little girl announced. "Give me oooooooooone second!"

She began to hunt for something, a hidden door he guessed. His abdomen was burning now and he searched his pockets for anything to help take the pain away. The only thing his fingers found was the cassette tape he had taken from the missing Lava Lady display. He decided to take a moment to listen to it, if only to distract himself from the growing pain. In his life, he didn't get to converse with sane people and for that he found comfort in the recorded voices- even if they were dead. He hit play and after a few seconds, a voice began to speak.

"Oh if daddy could see me now!"

When Rapture began, this had been Ryan's idea. He had wanted the citizens to record their thoughts and experiences in this glorious new city for future generation. Now these recordings were nothing more than lost voices, memories of ghosts with no one left to talk to. No one save Billy.

"He said I was a fool! He said I'd never make it anywhere but the stage of some 'peek show'. Well look at me now," she finished her last words without spite, but with joy.

He looked at the small screen that displayed a small picture of a young woman. Her voice almost didn't fit her girlish face. It was deeper, sultry. She continued quickly with her excitement making her words come out even faster, "I've got the center ring at the Carnival tonight! Miss Sapphire, the singing trapeze artist. Sure its not the speakeasy stage of New York I've been dreaming of, and I've had to do all but accept marriage from the ring master, but hey! A girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do!"

There was the background noise of her ending the recording. There was surely more to follow, but the Little Sister was waiving him over. As he neared, she pointed to a rack of costumes full of moth eaten holes. He pulled the clothes aside and found the hidey hole she was looking for. It was nothing more than a vent done up with a gold sun that Little Sister's used to get around Rapture.

She pushed him aside, jumping on the small gold perch beneath and jumping so that her hands could grasp the edge of the hole. With some wiggling she managed to pull herself in and momentarily disappeared from view.

"Hey," Billy shouted into the vent, his voice echoing. "I thought you were taking me for some help!"

The glowing eyes appeared before him out of the darkness and she said, "I am. This way!"

She dropped out of view as he took a look at the circular entrance only big enough for a child to enter. Sticking his head into it he shouted after her, "I can't fit in that!"

There was no response. He could hear the distant pounding of her knees against the metal as she crawled to some distant part of Rapture. A groan of frustration escaped him as he began pulling racks of clothes away from the wall looking for another secret passageway. Nothing. He looked down at the spreading red stain on his shirt. It wouldn't kill him, unless it got infected.

He pulled up the round, blood stained rug and felt for a sign that there was a trap door. Again, nothing. He looked around seeing the vanity was the only thing left. The mirrors were still intact, but he couldn't see his own reflection through the grime and dirt.

He tried to pull it from the wall, but it didn't budge. There were tons of secret passageways in this underwater city, but he had never found one in a vanity. He decided to start opening the drawers. He pulled them all completely out spilling tubes of lip sticks, canisters of hair spray and makeup, a pistol with some bullets, and a cassette tape. He pocketed it, but still nothing. He began to run his fingers along the lining looking for a crease, or a button.

"Ah-ha!"

He found a ridge, very subtle, and when he pulled on it a secret drawer slid out. He heard a puff of air and a crack began to emerge in the wall. He stood up and pulled the secret door open and entered a dark hallway, and immediately regretted it.

The secret door closed behind him and he heard that creepy music box beginning yet again. A small amount of light poured from under a door at the end of the hallway. The same direction the music was coming from.. If he was smart he would turn around and find a way out. Somewhere, the killer clown was still lurking around and Billy had the feeling he would be right behind that door. He had seen rooms full of dead corpses hanging from ropes. He had seen slaughter houses where people had been butchered. He couldn't imagine what horrible thing waited for him listening to that melancholy music box.

Despite the horrific images that were popping in his head, he was still outside the door. He could hear whisperings between the music box's slow notes. Quietly, he pulled his pistol from its holster and prepared to come face to face with the nightmare again. With a deep breath he pushed the door open and aimed into the room.

Two set of eyes met him, both wide with shock and alarm. One set was the glowing yellow eyes of the small girl. The second pair of eyes were impossible not to get lost into. They were a vibrant green.

It was a young woman. Unscarred and strangely untouched by the destructive hand of Rapture. Her pale face was shaped like a heart framed by short, soft, brown waves of hair. Her cheeks were flushed, with matching pink, soft lips. Her frame was tiny, and she was so petite she was hardly taller than the Little Sister beside her.

She was the last beauty Rapture had to offer.

* * *

Thanks so much to everyone who took the extra time to leave a review, I hope to hear from you again and anyone else. Also thanks to everyone who is still reading! If you haven't noticed the shotgun is my favorite weapon of Bioshock. I had lots of fun writing the fight scene, then I went and shot some splicers on my game. Well I will shut up now! Thanks again, really hope you enjoyed, and guess what- A NEW CHARACTER!


	4. Chapter 3 Gabriella

Chapter 3 : Gabriella

_"Love is a smoke made with the fumes of sighs;_  
_Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;_  
_Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears;_  
_What is it else? A madness most discreet,_  
_A choking gall, and a preserving sweet."_

_~ William Shakespeare _

The Little Sister glanced up to the young woman before Billy with a smile, but her green eyes were focused on Billy. She stepped into the pool of light from the singular overhead light and he realized she looked no older than himself.

"Are you . . . are you real?"

He had not met a real person, let alone a beautiful woman, since Rapture's fall, but he had read about meetings like this. He imagined the scene as if it played out in the book, it was the only place he had learned social skills. He swelled to his full height and took a deep, nervous breath. He felt something catch in his throat as his wound stretched and she looked at him with large eyes. The blood began rushing to his face, burning his cheeks with embarrassment as he flew into a fit of coughs.

"Yes," he croaked in between hacking coughs. "I'm . . . _cough _. . . My name is Billy."

Her reaction wasn't what he was suspecting.

She jumped backwards, screaming in surprised terror that a human had actually talked, and grabbed the shelf next to her for support and began pulling things off the shelves. He ducked out of the way as a heavy, locked tin box hurtled towards his head. It smacked into the ground as she threw another one at him, followed by a pair of shoes.

"Stop! Wait," he shouted as a third box hurtled towards his head.

"Get out of here," she shouted furiously flinging more shoes. "No strangers!"

"I'm not going to hurt you," he shouted over the clanging of tin smashing against a wall.

She froze, her hands gripping onto the shelf where she had at last run out of boxes. Her face was flustered, and her eyes were shinning with urgency. Billy looked around for an ally, for the Little Sister that had been in there moments before, but found she had left. They must have frightened her.

He looked back to the young woman worriedly. He had read that most books started with the line, 'what's your name,' but he had never read a book where someone tried to whack someone's head off first. He decided to give it a try anyway.

"What's your name?"

She looked back at him with her bright green eyes as if he was a strange creature that had crawled out of the shadows. She took a deep breath and let go of the case. Her blue dress swayed with the movement and he noticed it was tattered at the bottom. She looked much like a grown Little Sister with her bare feet.

"Gabriella," she said in the same, soft, airy voice that he recognized from the recording.

She was the reason he was here.

"I've come to help you escape," he said eagerly, stretching out his hand for her.

She took a step back from his hand, eyeing it with suspicion and fear before looking back at him. He quickly pulled it away trying to ignore the sting in his chest. He couldn't blame her for not trusting him, they were in Rapture after all.

"Escape to where," she said sternly. "There's nowhere –"

She didn't finish her words as a hissing whisper silenced her. "What is that I hear. . . "

Billy turned to the still opened door behind him and stared into the dark hallway. Beyond it he could hear the menacing chuckles of a female splicer. "Is that someone naughty I hear?"

Billy turned back to Gabriella who was slowly backing away from the door with an alarmed expression. She mouthed to him_, shut the door_. He moved slowly while listening to the commotion in the following room. Drawers bumped the floor as she pulled them out of place and he realized he hadn't covered his tract! Over his heavy breathing, he could hear the soft click of the button being pressed. A silver lining appeared as the secret passage in the door opened back up.

All pretenses gone, he slammed the door and turned the lock. He turned back in time to see Gabriella pulling the worn mattress off the wood bed frame. "What are you doing?"

"Help me," she demanded as she began to drag the bed frame away from the wall.

He joined her by her side and pulled the bed frame back and against the door. He could hear the clicking of heels over the sound of the bed sliding. The locked door knob twisted back and forth and a frustrated groan emitted on the other side.

"Let me in! Do you know who I AM?"

Gabriella flew across the room again and began searching the ground. Billy joined her as the splicer on the other side of the door began pounding against the door. He had seen splicers throw themselves against metal doors before thinking ADAM was on the other side. They threw themselves into the door over and over again, until they were bloodied and died.

"What are you looking for," Billy whispered.

The banging behind him silenced and all that could be heard was the ragged breathing of the splicer. "Baby, is that . . . is that you?"

"Secret door," she whispered.

"Her! Her! Her! Her," the splicer began shrieking hysterically and again began slamming her body into the door over and over again. "You can give my beauty back! Give it back!"

Billy had protected a Little Sister from the hoard of splicers, but he didn't want to keep pushing his luck. He slid onto the floor beside her and began to search.

"I found it," she shouted in excitement, and again the beating went silent.

They both froze in suspense, the hatch in the floor cracked. Billy stared at the door, wondering if the splicer on the other side was a bruised, bloodied, dying mess. All he could hear was their breathing.

"Do you think she's dead," Gabriella whispered.

A bloodcurdling scream sent them both jumping. "I'm going to burn you both alive!"

Smoke began to curl from the door, but Gabriella seemed frozen to the spot. Billy shouted to motivate her to move, "Let's go," and she jumped back to life. She pulled the door back, and fell backwards with a scream.

Staring up out of the darkness with his painted white face and a rotting, toothy smile was the same killer clown. His eyes were bleeding from the trauma of their previous fight, magnifying the terror already in Billy's heart. Slowly he began to rise from the hole, enjoying the ominous suspense he created with his slow movement. Every muscle in Billy's body itched with desire to run to the door, but it was now dancing in flames.

Gabriella's eyes were locked in horror at the face leering at both of them. They both scrambled backwards, tripping over their hands to put more space between them and him. There was still a gaping, bloody hole in his chest, but blood was not dripping from it. It was healing! Damn ADAM!

Billy pulled the shotgun off his back and fired from his spot on the floor. The power behind the shot made him almost topple over, and his abdomen burned with pain as the bullet was wedged deeper. The buck shot hit the right shoulder ripping clothes and already rotting skin away, but he didn't stop. Instead he laughed his menacing laughter as a thick haze of smoke began to settle into the room. The female splicer was shrieking with hysterical laughter from behind, and the clown was taking dragging steps towards them as fire began to grow. They were trapped!

As Billy reloaded, the clown pulled out a syringe filled with the electric blue liquid Billy knew as Eve. Adam could make people stronger, faster, smarter but that was just passive abilities they sold as gene tonics. Adam's true wonder plasmids that made humans have the power God never wanted them to have. The power to throw fire, to hurl lightning bolts, and even to control the mind of others, but such power needed a strong energy source and that was Eve.

Billy let all his shots fly. Each ripped into the rotted flesh sending blood splattering around the room, but the clown hardly paused as he stabbed the needle into his arm and injected the power into his blood. He could hear the hiss as the blue liquid injected into the veins. He could see the manic smile that washed over his face from the high of the drug.

Billy reloaded his gun as the flames slithered over the wooden bed frame and over the turned mattress, stopping them from moving any further. The splicer was growing louder with her mad cackling, while they choked on the thickening fire. Billy let another buck slam into the clown's body, but it was no longer doing any damage. The clown reached his hand out and a jagged bolt of electricity shot towards Billy and Gabriella. They rolled out of the way and Billy nearly rolled into a wall of fire. He heard his pistol clatter onto the floor and reached for it, momentarily forgetting it was still unloaded.

"Watch out," Gabriella screamed, but it was too late.

Billy's own scream of agony sounded unfamiliar to his ears as the blood stained knife drove through his hand and into the floor. He looked up in terror as the clown sneered down at him with vengeful satisfaction. Suddenly Billy realized he wasn't afraid to die, but he was afraid of the way he was going to die. The clown aimed a hand at Billy and he knew the torture was coming before he even saw the jagged lightning. The air snapped with the electricity that coursed through Billy's body. Every muscle tensed with a burning fury, threatening to snap his bones.

It was only a few seconds before the clown stopped, but it felt like hours. The clown's manic hackling rose in triumph to replace the splicer who had grown silent outside the door. He clenched his fist, and then opened it to release another current of electricity. The electric shock coursed through Billy's body, piercing his nerves in agonizing pain, and slamming his lungs shut so he could not so much as scream. The muscle bent in ways that tested the bones, and they burned as if he was being cooked from the inside.

He couldn't hear the clown's cackling over his own pain, but then suddenly the pain and the noise stopped. Billy looked up, exhausted, to see blood gushing from the side of the clown's head. He was gazing down at an iron box that had popped open from the impact, and a furious glower covered his face. They both turned to look at Gabriella who stood just in front of a Little Sister's vent, safely away from the fire. She was glaring at the clown with anger and determination, rose to her full height which was no more than five feet, and warned the clown, "Leave him alone!"

A new torture began for Billy as the clown changed his direction. His steps were shuffling, he was too wounded and had lost too much blood to continue, but he slowly made his way towards Gabriella. Billy felt a terror more chilling than any he had felt before rush through him, and he pulled out the knife from his hand with a howl of pain.

"Come back here," Billy shouted, flinging the knife at the clown's back, "so I can kill you again!"

The butt of the knife struck into his back stopping his slow progression, but he didn't turn back to Billy. Instead he raised his hand and released another current of electricity. Fatigued, his aim was off, striking the wall instead of Gabriella.

"You missed you freak," Billy taunted in hopes he'd turn around.

The clown ignored Billy, letting loose another bolt of lightning that this time Gabriella had to jump to miss. He quickly let loose another strike, only too high so it merely missed her head.

"Billy," she shouted, "the box! The box!"

Billy glanced at the box and saw there were pistol bullets inside. His body burned in protest as he reached his bloody hand and pulled his gun over. He glanced up to see her dodge another lightning strike, while flinging another iron box at the clown's head. He didn't see if it connected as he forced his body closer to the bullets. The searing pain in his abdomen gave way to warmth as the bullet twisted inside, opening his wound even wider and blood poured out.

"Gabriella," a child voice called over the commotion in the room. "Use this!"

Billy looked up to see the yellow eyes of the Little Sister peeking from the dark hole of the vent. He heard something heavy fall onto the ground, but quickly returned to reloading his gun. He only had three bullets. He raised the gun, shakily aiming for the clown's neck as exhaustion and aching pain weighted it down. Gabriella was running out of room to avoid his attacks as flames licked higher into the air.

"I'm over here you freak," Billy shouted, pulling the trigger.

The bullet came closer to hitting Gabriella than the clown. He was using his left hand rather than his good hand. Of course the clown would have stabbed that hand. The heat of the fire was growing more intense, the smoke was making it even harder to see who he aimed at. He lowered his gun and pulled the trigger again. This time the bullet connected with the clown's left leg.

He buckled under the pain, sending his bolt of electricity high into the air. Gabriella quickly began to scurry away towards the vent as Billy once again caught the clown's attention. The smile was gone from his face, replaced with an expression full of hatred. The clown, fueled by rage and bloodlust, moved quicker to reach Billy now as he pulled out another syringe of Eve. He was out of power to shoot anymore electricity, and Billy knew this was his chance. He had one bullet left!

The agonizing pain that passed through his entire body kept his hand unsteady, but he knew he couldn't fail now. He was wounded, blood was pouring out of his right hand and abdomen, but the clown was worse off. He tensed his trigger finger, the slightest movement sent a shock of pain through his entire arm, but the bullet released from the gun.

Billy watched in horror as the bullet passed through air and struck the opposite wall. The clown's scowl turned into a gleeful, threatening smile. He stabbed the Eve into his skin and Billy could only hope that Gabriella had had enough sense to escape. It was better this way. Billy had saved her, in a sense, and he could die knowing he had done one thing, if only one thing that made this existence worth living for.

The Eve injected into him, the clown raised his hand and froze. There was a snap, and the clown gasped for air, his mouth frozen open in agony. His arm still raised, the clown fell face forward onto the ground. Behind him Gabriella stood frozen with a cross bow still aimed where the clown had stood. In the back of his head protruded a steel bolt.

Relief rushed through Billy, momentarily erasing the pain as she ran to him. The fire was wildly consuming the room around them, but she ignored it as she fell to the ground beside him. "Are you alright?"

Billy smiled at her sheepishly and said honestly, "Just another day."

The burning room and the death that surrounded him no longer existed as she gave him the first real smile he had seen since his childhood. Dimples dotted her round cheeks as she beamed a toothy, white grin. He didn't even seem to mind the searing pain that crippled his body, if he could just stay there a moment longer to marvel in this moment he would, but her smile was already gone.

"I'll help you up," she stated.

She looked as if she was having a hard time holding onto that crossbow, let alone supporting him. Glancing over at the clown he croaked, "See if that bastard has any Eve."

Doubt covered her face, but only for a moment. She quickly scurried over to the clown, kicking him for good measure, before searching the bag on his side. She pulled out the blue Eve filled syringe and brought it to him. The doubt was back as she held it in her hands, and he understood why. If Adam was the drug that slowly made you insane, then Eve was the catalyst that drove you into mania. He pulled back the stained white sleeves to show the scarred skin that covered his arms.

"I've . . . I've never spliced before, but I don't think I can make it withougt it," his voice didn't sound reassuring to his own ears.

She took a deep breath before plunging the needle into his skin. The blue liquid cooled the burning in his body as it ran through is vein. Already the world around him was growing sharper, clearer. He could smell the charring wood and the subtle, sweet fragrance of Adam that leaked from the blood of the clown. The pain was not erased, but dulled and his heart beat powerfully in chest as a surge of power coursed through him.

"Let's go," she said, grabbing his shot gun that lay behind him, and then throwing his arm around her shoulders.

He stifled the groan as his arm stretched the wound in his abdomen even further. As she lifted him up, he used as much of his own strength as he could muster so as not to burden her. The burning world with its bright reds and rolling oranges swirled around him for moment and he thought he might vomit.

"We have to get to the hatch," she said urgently, her airy voice bringing him back to his senses.

Looking down at her, he had never been aware of how tall he really was, or how large his muscles had grown until comparing them to her petite and slender frame. He wasn't sure she even reached five feet, and she could hardly weigh more than one hundred pounds. He momentarily wondered how she could have survived in such a place. He shifted more of his weight off of her and onto his feet, with the Eve he could keep himself standing despite the amount of blood he had lost.

She looked up at him with her eyes wide with concern as he steady himself, but his arm was still around her shoulders for comfort. "Can you do this?"

He nodded, fearful to use too much energy. They hurried into the hole, and he held her back so he could drop in first. His abdomen stung from the impact of his feet against the ground, but it was tolerable. With the Eve he could see even further through the darkness in the tunnel and it seemed to be empty. "It's safe! Hurry!"

She grabbed the latch and jumped in, slamming it shut behind her. As she fell, she reached out to him to steady herself. Her touch was soft, her hand small. It made his heart flutter madly in his chest.

"Where does this lead," he asked.

"Into the ring master's office," she said after a moment, "but he's gone now. This way."

He followed her as she lead him into the darkness, leaving the fire far behind. He easily saw over the silhouette of her head. They were both silent as they took the long hall that seemed to stretch forever into nothing but darkness. Already he could feel the effects of Eve wearing off, it was a miracle drug but it seemed he could not be helped. Each step wore on his wounds, making them burn with each movement. Fatigue was slowly rolling over him causing him to lean further into the wall just to support his body.

Behind them the light of the fire was gone, but a light was growing ahead. Billy could hear blood beginning to drip from the wounds as each step stretched them further open. They stepped into a pool of wall that filtered through the cracks of a wall.

Billy peeked through the slender cracks into a room that was in shambles. A desk was scorched and the contents thrown across the room. Blood stains splattered the walls, the floor, everywhere. The sight made him weak and he slumped into the floor.

"Are you ok," Gabriella whispered, sliding onto the ground beside him.

He watched numbly how her blue dress billowed around her like waves as she sat. It took him a moment to realize she was shaking him. He looked into her face and saw worry there. She said something but he couldn't hear.

An odd thought crept into his mind. This was the last place he had seen his father. It was somewhat fitting that he died there as well.

"Saw who," Gabriella asked.

He wasn't aware he had spoken aloud. "My dad . . . I don't even remember what he looked like."

She was silent for a moment, but he could hear her ripping fabric from the tattered bottom of her dress. He watched as she tied it tightly around his hand that didn't even hurt anymore. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this was bad.

"Do you remember your parents," he asked, though he was not sure why.

"No," she said simply.

He just wanted to speak with someone, a real person. He didn't want to listen to the voices of ghosts anymore.

"Do you remember what this place was like," his words were slurred even to his own ears, but he kept speaking. "It used to be so . . . beautiful. I'm sorry you are here. You belong . . . somewhere beautiful."

She locked eyes with him and he could see something ripple beneath those vibrant green eyes. He didn't know why he was saying it, but exhaustion had settled in and it was all he could do to keep his eyes open. She shook her head and said, "I'll be right back."

Billy closed his eyes as she stood up to leave. He had never seen the sun, but he imagined standing beneath it would have been like standing in the Carnival. It had been so full of light, so bright. He remembered his mother bright blond hair shinning beneath the lights. She wore a soft lavender dress that was soft when it brushed against their arms while she led him by his hand. His father was there too, but he couldn't remember what he looked like anymore.

Gabriella's voice came floating from the distance into his memories, "Lay down. I have to remove the bullet."

He opened his eyes to see her leaning over him as he lay in the floor. He tried to remember how he had gotten there as she busied herself with pulling up his shirt away from the wound. He closed his eye and remembered the brightly colored roof of the tent. Then he saw the clown stabbing the knife through his stomach with a sneer of hatred. Pain rippled through his entire body causing him to cry out.

He propped himself up to see the blood spraying from the knife in the clown's hand. The world swirled around him in colors and memories, blending what was real and what was not. He realized he could see through the clown and into Gabriella. She was gazing at him with glowing yellow eyes and a bright smile like the Little Sister he had saved earlier. She blurred in and out of focus, but those glowing yellow eyes stayed locked on him. The clown's laughter echoed in his ears. The Little Sister singing about angel's rebounded around them.

He was dying, lying in his own pool of blood, but there was nothing he could do. The world around him was growing dark. The clown's petrifying laughter was becoming muffled. Only the yellow eyes remained, but soon even that was washed away into the darkness around them.

* * *

Is anyone else excited about Infinite? I know it's really different than Bioshock, but I'm still excited! Feel free to leave a review and let me know your thoughts on infinite and/or the chapter. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy. Shout out to mr penguin 991 for the awesome review!


	5. Chapter 4 The Finale

If you couldn't access chapter 3, please read before chapter 4. Thanks for still reading! This chapter is violent, as is the game so if you have a problem with that- why did you ever play Bioshock?

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Chapter 4 The Finale

"_O villain, villain, smiling damned villain!" – Shakespeare's Hamlet_

"I'm a star!"

The haze of soft yellow light delicately erased the cloud of darkness hanging in Billy's eyes.

He remembered that voice. It was a woman.

Miss Sapphire, she had called herself.

The darkness and light were battling before his eyes. Slowly the darkness overshadowed the light.

Had he known this woman? A face was forming, but the darkness cast shadows upon her. He couldn't remember. Still she talked to him from across the darkness with excitement, sharing her joy.

"Center Ring! Shows sold out! Adoring fans! It's everything I've dreamed of! Rapture! Of course . . . everything has its price."

The light was softly burning at the edge of darkness. Miss Sapphire's words were burning with animosity. "Everyone in this circus is envious of my fame- of my spot in the center ring! I worked so hard to get here, and how is it my fault poor Emmy fell off the high rope and broke her neck?"

She scoffed and an unsettling fear settled in Billy's heart. Was he in hell, or Rapture? Was there even a difference anymore?

"There have been threats against me too! I came into my dressing room today and you know what I found? The bouquet the Ring Master gave me burning with a note that said 'you're next,'!"

The light was growing sharper now, burning the shadows out of existence. Billy blinked the haze back and stared in confusion at the scorched, wooden roof above him.

Where was he?

"And the ring master, don't even get me started on the Ring Master! Silly fool actually thinks I love him! If only he knew the truth about the magician and me! Ha!"

Billy turned his head searching for the source of the voice. The room swayed, leaving an array of colors dancing around someone. He blinked the swirls away and saw he was looking at Gabriella. His heart skipped a beat with elation and he tried to sit back up, but she immediately pushed him back. With a finger to her lips she urged him with her eyes to remain silent.

"Everyone here hates me now of course," Miss Sapphire's recorded voice continued, but he couldn't spot the tape player.

He glanced around his surroundings and realized they were in the burned office he had seen through the cracks in the wall. At Gabriella's side was the cross bow, a first aid kit, an empty syringe, and stitches. Behind Gabriella was the blood splattered wall, and fencing them in like a small fortress was the toppled desk and book case.

"But who cares? I am the star now! People even _give_ me Adam! Can you believe that? Ha! With all this Adam, my show is eight times more exciting. Fire twirls in the air while I . . . Wait. . . What is that?"

Billy pushed Gabriella's protesting hands away, and ignored the sharp pain in his side as he sat up and glanced over the top of the desk. He had to bite his tongue to keep back a gasp of surprise, disgust, and agitation. It was another damn splicer, but not just any splicer. It was a woman, the one he had mistaken to be a wax figure. Lava Lady.

She stood with her back to the desk and the tape player in her blackened hands. There was a scuffling as if Miss Sapphire had abruptly stood up. "It smells like . . . It smells like smoke? . . . Oh no! . . .Oh God no! Fire! Help me someone! Fire-"

Billy watched as Lava Lady slammed the recorder onto the ground smashing it into pieces. Angry flames had erupted from her fingers. "My voice! My voice! Why have you stolen my voice?"

He quickly fell back to floor and looked to see Gabriella scrambling with the crossbow. He tried to sit back up and stop her from calling attention to herself, but she pushed him back to the floor and pointed the tip over the desk and aimed.

"Was my beauty not enough?! I'll have my revenge! Only one's left now- only one!"

Gabriella pulled the trigger. He heard the snap of the bow as the bolt was released. He heard the crack of bone as it burrowed its way into the splicer. He sat up and saw that she had made a clear shot midline through the splicer's neck cutting off her airway. She was now another one of the many corpses pinned to yet another wall of Rapture.

He couldn't help but be impressed, but he wasn't surprised. Only killers could survive in Rapture, and now neither she nor he could be anything more. She let out a long breath, before standing back up on slightly wobbly feet. She offered her hand to help him stand. He ignored the stitches in his side as he was pulled to his feet. He began to speak but was interrupted by music. They both looked to the ceiling, spotting the speakers that played the twisted circus music.

A sigh of resignation escaped Gabriella's lips before she informed him, "We have to escape. They know we are here now."

As if this was a sufficient explanation, she stepped over the desk and made her way to the door picking up his bag the splicer had been picking through on her way.

"They who," Billy asked, ignoring the aches in his body as he quickly followed over the desk.

She didn't glance at the corpse now pinned to the wall as she passed by. She opened the door and beckoned him forward. There was a new light in her eyes. It was radiant. He had never seen hope in the face of another, but he knew that was what it was.

"The Ring Master," she said standing inside the door to look at him. "And whoever is left."

She waited for him to join her. He looked down into her face and saw resolve setting in as she asked, "Where are you taking me?"

He looked back into the room that was scorched, splattered with blood, and rotting from leaking water. Where they were going would be no better. There was no safe haven in Rapture anymore. He looked back at her. "Away from here."

She nodded, turning away from him and stepping into a darker hallway. "Follow me. I know where we can get more supplies."

It was painful to keep up with her, but determination kept him moving. It was deadly quiet here. Billy's breath sounded loud and ragged in his ears. They passed crooked, faded, and stained advertisements of once booming businesses. She led him through the twisting halls without hesitation. They passed corpses with messages written on the wall in dried blood above them. They all seemed to send the same message, the Ring Master ruled here. She at last stopped before an empty glass display case like the one he had seen Lava Lady inside.

With the butt of her cross bow she smashed it open and cleared out the glass. She pulled open the hidden door that opened into more darkness.

"Do you know where this goes," he asked as she jumped inside the case.

"Not exactly. Only that there are supplies here," she glanced back at him, "but it can't be any worse than any other room."

With that she jumped inside and he had no choice but to follow. His feet hit a soft surface of a hidden supply room. Gabriella was already pulling off medical supplies and stuffing it into his bag. He began to raid the large shelf of weapons. He found two pistols and a shotgun already loaded. He strapped them to himself, feeling more confident and powerful already.

"Are you ready," Gabriella asked.

He turned to see her standing before a door. His bag was strapped across her shoulders so it couldn't be snatched. Sticking from it was a number of bolts and she clung to the cross bow that looked oversized compared to her small stature.

"Lead the way," he said.

She opened the door into a half circled room. Tunnels stretched out around them like the painted sunray. Gabriella hardly seemed to notice any of them, but the one she walked directly towards. She had already chosen her path, and Billy had no choice but to follow. The twisted circus tune still haunted the halls even down here. Costumes lay upon the ground, rotting and neglected.

"Are we beneath the circus rings," he asked.

"Yes," she replied, "one of the smaller ones. As long as we stay away from the center ring, we might make it out of here alive."

They came upon a fork and she continued to the right without hesitation. Billy wasn't sure where they were going, but she did. "How long have you been here, Gabriella?"

She didn't reply at first. He could hear something change in her breathing before she finally answered, "Since I was a child."

Billy shivered at the thought of being surrounded by spliced up, killer clowns for so long. "And . . . you are alone? I mean there's no one else we should be looking for?"

"Not any more," she replied, and stopped abruptly.

The music had stopped mid tune and had been replaced by a soft fluttering. Something dark was growing at the end of the tunnel. He could see it swelling, twisting, and morphing.

"Something's coming," Gabriella whispered.

The fluttering grew stronger, into heavy flapping. Small, tiny dots of yellow dots of light peppered the darkness.

"Crows," Gabriella shouted, turning to run, but it was too late.

They were swarmed by what seemed like a hundred of blood thirsty crows. Some beat past them, but others dived madly at them. Billy covered his face, feeling their talons scratching into his skin. Their razor beaks burrowed into his skin.

"Billy," Gabriella shouted as she slung her crossbow around in an attempt to beat them away.

Their black feathers blocked his view as they hungrily pecked at his arms blocking his face. Their eyes were glowing yellow like a little sister and he knew these were no ordinary birds. They had Adam. He pulled out his pistol and fired, but he hit air more than flesh.

"Get off me," Gabriella shrieked.

Rage filled Billy. It was an inferno burning in his chest that quickly spread through his body. His vision grew sharper. He could see each flap of the wings and the way the feathers spread in the air to suspend the bird while it pecked away at his flesh. He could see the glint at the end of the razor beaks and talon feet. Then that rage burst from him as fire.

It encircled him, catching the birds in its burning ring. They cawed in pain, soaring high into the air in attempts to get away, only to fall back dead to the ground. Even as they lay dying, he could hear more flapping towards them. He rushed over to Gabriella and pulled her to her feet, "Hurry."

They took off running the way they had just come. Birds pecked hungrily at rotted corpses as they passed, cawing protectively over their food. Billy looked back to see the hundreds of glowing eyes closing in on them. Gabriella was pulling out a grenade from his bag she still carried. She pulled the clip and threw it into the swarm.

The ground shook beneath them as it exploded. The world lit around them in a hue of orange fire and he could hear the pained cawing of the animals. They reached the labyrinth once more, and Gabriella pulled him into the tunnel next to the crow-infested tunnel. They made it no further than three feet inside when a chain of explosions sent them falling backwards to the ground.

Fire raged from overturned gasoline tanks. Billy wasted no time pulling Gabriella to her feet and back down the path. He tried to lead her into the closest tunnel, but she pulled back. "No, not that way! Not that way!"

She pulled him towards the opposite side of the room into another tunnel. He could hear more flapping from behind. From somewhere deep inside the labyrinth someone shouted, "Get it right this time! No fuck ups," and he knew they were not alone.

They came to another fork and this time Gabriella pulled him to the left. Billy saw the red light before Gabriella. He jerked her arm back, sending her crashing into him just in time. Five turrets blocked their path and were spitting bullets in their direction. She pushed past him and they took the right path.

From somewhere another explosion shook the ground. He could hear the creaking above him and looked up to see they were running under a metal ceiling enforced with wooden beams. The beams lost their hold, crashing into the ground. Billy had to stop to miss being crushed by one.

"Come on," Gabriella shouted. "This way."

He jumped over the beam and attempted to follow her around a corner into a new tunnel. She stopped abruptly as the air sizzled with electricity and she was only inches away from being electrocuted. Trap bolts had been placed in crisscrosses to deter them from moving any further.

"There's too many," she cried.

Another beam fell, setting off a hidden mine from behind. The explosion shook the ground and this time flame erupted from behind, catching the beams on fire. It quickly grew into a wall of fire as if the entire tunnel had been doused in gasoline. They only had the option to continue down the first tunnel.

"We are being herded," Gabriella shouted at him angrily as he pulled her away from the flames and electric bolts.

"We got to get out of here," he yelled.

The flames were spreading over head faster than they could run. Embers dripped down, occasionally catching their skin and burning them. Smoke was beginning to strangle them both now, and Billy wasn't sure they would reach the exit before the fire consumed them.

"Watch out," she shouted.

They both flung themselves against the wall to miss a falling beam. He quickly pulled her forward and they continued running. From somewhere far behind, he could hear angry voices and cawing laughs, but he couldn't understand them. The metal beneath their feet was already scorching hot. Pipes around them were springing loose from their hold without the wooden beams for support leaking oxygen. From somewhere behind one exploded, sending them both tumbling forward.

He pushed himself up from the scorching metal and looked to make sure Gabriella was ok. She was looking ahead. "Look! There's the exit!"

Only feet ahead were stairs, but already flames had reached them. Billy helped pull her up and put on a burst of speed that Gabriella matched with her slower pace. Another beam came crashing down behind them, sending sparks flying into their back and stinging them with their heat. He felt a tug of resistance from Gabriella and was forced to stop.

She was pulling at her long dress that was snagged on a metal pipe. The burning fabric ripped, sending her tumbling back into him. He caught her and turned her around to help put out the flames that were eating away at the hem of her skirt. They barely burned his own hands.

"Look out!"

She pushed him away from her, just in time to miss a blazing beam falling to the ground. He caught her eyes over the flames as another beam followed. She disappeared beneath the thick, black smoke that now clouded the world around him.

"Billy!"

"Get to the stairs Gabriella," he shouted between hacking coughs. "Get out of here!"

"Billy," she shrieked.

He couldn't tell which way was forward anymore. The smoke wasn't only clouding his vision, but his thoughts. His lungs were burning from the smoke, making it almost impossible to breath. It was as if Rapture was determined to kill him with fire here in this circus.

"Billy I can't see you," Gabriella shouted.

He stumbled forward towards the voice.

"Where are you?"

"Right here," he attempted to shout, but it came out as a croak.

"Billy can you hear me? I'm at the stairs."

Another beamed crashed into the metal floor from beside him. He jumped out of the way, smacking into the wall as the flames came dangerously close to his skin. He quickened his steps, as a silhouette began to form ahead against the smoke.

"Follow my voice! Billy!"

He could see the figure of the small girl now. He forced his body to move quicker through the haze until at last her face came into view.

"Billy," she shouted in relief, taking his hand and leading him up the stairs.

He didn't dare look back into the inferno raging beneath them as they pushed opened a metal door. They fell onto the ground, gulping the fresh air down greedily. Billy angrily kicked the door shut behind him. He rolled onto his back and glanced over at Gabriella.

There were scorched holes in random places of her dress. Ashes coated her hair and soot stained her dress. Still, she was looking back at him and he knew for a moment they were both glad to be alive.

"Where are we now," he asked, trying to look around, but the water in his eyes blurred the world and the lights were too dim to make anything out.

"I don't know," she said sitting up.

He took a deep breath, wishing he could just lay there but there would be plenty of time for rest in death. He forced himself up, and offered a hand to Gabriella. She took it without hesitation and he pulled her to her feet. "Let's keep moving."

She nodded as the dim lights shut off, leaving them stumbling in a forbidden darkness.

"An audience?"

A sinister laugh slowly seeped through the darkness, freezing Billy and Gabriella to their spot. Instinctively he stepped in front of her. Her hand gripped his arm, and he could feel the fear through the tension of her small fingers.

"It's him," there was no missing the terror in her whisper. "The Ring Master."

"Welcome . . . to your funeral."

They both jumped at the harsh sound of spotlights turning on. Their abrasive lights flooded the cemetery around them, bleaching out the color and creating long, looming shadows. Crooked, broken, and jagged tombstones jutted from the ground all around them. Some were adorned with skulls and bones, others with names. Right before them was an open grave with the name Miss Sapphire hastily scribbled across it. Billy couldn't make himself look at the freshly dug hole, but he still saw the steel bolt that jutted out.

"Oh no, Billy," Gabriella whispered, pressing herself closer to him.

"I know," he said scanning the blood splattered stones, and as he said it his blood crawled. "It's the center ring."

What once had been a sand ring full of marvelous acrobatics, regal elephants, and clumsy clowns was now the very cemetery they stood in. Gabriella was right, they had been herded exactly where she had been trying not to go. In the back the stone door of an elegant mausoleum began to open. Seeping out from its darkness was the sinister voice.

"We will scare you . . ."

The floodlights were shut off and replaced by blood red lights. Dread began to set in.

"We will terrify you . . . "

Fog had began to roll in, obscuring the ground and its tombstones. Billy reached for his pistol, but Gabriella tightened her grip to stop him. He glanced over her shoulder to see her slowly shaking her head. He was surprised to see there was no fear in her face.

"Welcome to Doctor Crow's Infernal Circus!"

Billy prepared himself for what horrid, crazed, spliced up splicer would walk through the door. He was expecting someone truly terrifying, someone deformed and disfigured beyond human recognition. What stepped out was nothing of the source.

He was tall, slender, and dressed in a long, black tuxedo coat and high top hat. The same suit he remembered from the days of his youth. Like any splicer, he wore the masquerade mask coated in blood and dirt but it only covered half of his face. The other half was flawless, smooth, and pleasant. He peered at them both through yellow eyes and gave them an ominous smile.

"Let the Splicer's Parade . . . begin!"

From behind him emitted a distant howl of pain that echoed around them. A firelight was growing from within the mausoleum. The Ring Master stepped aside so that they could watch the fire grow closer. With a howl of agony the burning body ran out from the door only to collapse just beyond the Ring Master.

"This will end in blood."

With a snap of his fingers crows dived from out of the shadows and began to dine on the corpse. Show music began simultaneously. It was a tune he recognized, one that once had been happy and dainty but now was twisted into a horrific melody.

"Billy," Gabriella shrieked.

He turned to see her stomping at the ground and saw hands that were crawling out of graves. Panic now set in and he pumped the shot gun and let two shots fire into the first head that appeared over the edge. Gabriella followed his lead and began to snipe at the splicers that were crawling out from the ground. Her shots were perfect, but they both were quickly over whelmed.

The lights began to flash on and off quickly as the splicers began to dance around them in chaotic circles. The effect made Billy dizzy, and he was forced to press his back into Gabriella's to keep his balance. There was something reassuring about her presence, and simultaneously terrifying. He fired randomly at the dancing shapes only to miss. The splicers dived at them, only too pull back and cackle madly.

They wore blood-splattered masks of bones, real bones. Their body was scarred, deformed and twisted with Adam use. Their suits were costumes he recognized from his childhood.

"Billy!"

Billy turned to see the splicers attempting to pull the cross bow from Gabriella's hand, while another pulled at her arms. Billy beat the first away with the butt of his gun. He crumbled to the ground and Billy shot him dead as the dance continued around them. The second splicer lunged for Billy, but a steel tipped bolt stopped him.

The splicer's dancing circle was closing in on them. Another splicer lunged, and Billy beat him back with the butt of his shotgun. He quickly grabbed Gabriella's arm and pulled her out of reaching distance of a manic clown. He placed the barrel of the gun against the clown's head and pulled the trigger as Gabriella took out an approaching splicer with a bolt through the eye.

They both glanced at each other as the ground began to shake beneath them. A slow, methodical, pounding reached their ears over the music as a curtain began to pull open in the back. The lights turned red again, the splicer continued to dance, and glaring yellow eyes bore into Billy and Gabriella. Two monstrous elephants were marching slowly into the ring. Their faces sagged, and open wounds oozed. They were dragging behind them a stage with something covered by a tarp.

The splicer's circle opened to allow the elephants to stomp into the ring. Tombstones crumbled like powder beneath their feet. The splicers now dived together for Billy and Gabriella. He could hear her screaming, but he couldn't see her as he fought to hold onto his shotgun. They pulled from all sides, their fingers digging into his skin as they pulled him apart from his shotgun.

"Gabriella!"

He punched blindly into the mass of bodies that swarmed him. His hand connected with bones harder than stone, still his own did not break. He grabbed another's throat and attempted to crush it, but splicer's were pulling his arms back. "I won't let you take her! You hear me!"

"Billy!"

They tore him away from the splicer and held him back so he was forced to watch as they dragged her away. The elephants had stopped their progression, but the dance had not. They simply made a path for the Ring Master to step to and upon the stage. Billy used his elbows to smash the nose of one of the splicers holding him back. He released his arm and he tried to lung forward, but there were too many of them and he was once again held back.

"And now," the Ring Master declared, "for the finale!"

In response the elephants threw their trunks into the air and blew fire into the air. He pulled the tarp away to reveal a glass box filled with water and at least six feet deep and six feet wide. "The Great Escape! All that is needed is a willing volunteer. Ah, here's one now! Come this way."

The splicers thrust Gabriella onto the stage and into the Ring Master's arm. Her green eyes were wide with alarm, her mouth gagged, and her hands and feet tied. Billy froze in terror, knowing what was to come. The Ring Master was going to make him watch her drown.

"My, what lovely eyes," the Ring Master chuckled, pulling her up the ramp aside the box and stopping at the tip. "Have we met before?"

The Ring Master shoved her hard off the platform and crashing into the water.

"No," was all Billy could shout as he was still held back in the splicer's iron clad grip.

The splicers let go to clap in excitement. Billy lunged forward, wrenching a bolt from the chest of a dead splicer. It pulled free from the already decayed body, and he lunged for the unsuspecting splicer holding his shotgun. He shoved the bolt deep into his throat. As he fell back choking on his own blood, he pulled his shotgun free.

Another splicer lunged for Billy, but the shotgun's powerful blast threw him back into a group of splicers behind him. He took out the next one with the butt of his gun as he grabbed for his hand. Billy had always tried to live without killing, but today he had killed more than he had in his entire existence in Rapture.

The dancing circle had begun again under the blood red lights. Gabriella had sunk to the bottom, weighed down by her dress and ropes, and was beating helpless against the glass. Billy shot without mercy and without remorse at each splicer that dived at him. He reached the elephants who stomped angrily at his presence. He dived between their legs dodging their crushing feet, but the splicers following him were not so lucky. They released fire into the air in rage and then swiped their flames at him as he ran out. He pushed a splicer into the flame's path, burning his shoulder in the process but he could not even feel the pain.

The burning splicer ran into one of the legs of the Adam drugged animal. Its yellows eyes grew wide in pain and reared onto its legs. It came crashing back down on the splicers that tried to calm them. Billy pushed through them as fire emitted from their trunks again. Splicers screamed in agony as firelight lit his path.

Billy jumped onto the stage, watching for the Ring Master to intervene. He stood still as a statue, watching with his yellow eyes from under his black top hat.

"Gabriella," Billy shouted as her eyes began to droop.

With more strength than he knew himself capable of he slammed the butt of his shotgun into the glass wall like a bat. A splinter ran up the side as he swung a second time. The stage bounced beneath him with the elephants wild movements. He heard the chains beginning to break. He slammed again and again, sending a spider web of cracks into the glass.

The chains broke loose and the splicers retreated with panic screams into the shadows. The elephants refused to let them leave the ring alive and stampeded angrily after them blowing torrents of fire. Billy slammed the gun into the glass again, and again. The force ripped his stitches apart and he could feel the wound in his abdomen opening.

With a growl of pain Billy slammed the gun into the glass one final time and could feel it give way beneath the force. Shards cut into him as a wave of water and Gabriella's body smashed into him. He caught her, falling hard onto his back onto the cemetery's ground.

She coughed up water, choking as she gasped for air. Billy pulled the gag from her mouth and pulled her into a sitting position and slapped at her back until she was no longer choking. The music had stopped and the splicer and spliced elephants were gone. Now only the Ring Master was left, and Billy was going to kill him.

He reached for his gun, planning to use every last bullet he had.

"Billy, no," Gabriella croaked, and he froze.

He looked at her in confusion. She sat with her back to the stage, still clutching her chest as she gulped down air. Her eyes were wide with terror, but her voice was soft as she said again, "No."

Billy looked to see the Ring Master stepping down from the stage towards them. He peered at them with amused eyes from beneath his top hat. He put his hands together and clapped once, twice, three times. Hatred deeper than Billy had ever known began to burn inside him and he wanted nothing more than to wipe that amused smile from his face.

"The audience wants an encore," the Ring Master chuckled, "and who am I to deny?"

He snapped his fingers and his crows came diving towards him. They encircled him as a black smoke began to encircle them. "Our next show shall be . . . truly magnificent."

The smoke engulfed him and his birds until there was nothing more and Billy and Gabriella were left alone.


	6. Chapter 5 Moving Together

WAIT! READ THIS 4/8: I have made MINOR changes to help the story's plot progress smoothly but you do NOT have to go back and re read! They are 1. Gabriellas eyes are GREEN not blue (you'll will see why that was important later on). 2. I took Tenenbaum OUT of the story so she did NOT give Billly the tape or even speak to him ever. I'm sorry to do that, but that is what happens when you post a story still in progress! Thank you!

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**Chapter 5 Moving Together**

"_I would not wish any companion in the world but you." -Shakespeare_

"Billy . . . wait."

Billy couldn't help but be agitated as he paused just outside the exit. They were so close to finally escaping! He was looking out of the circus and into Rapture's city, but when he turned he could see that Gabriella was still looking in. She stood with her hands together and her back to him.

"Gabriella," he said softly, coming to stand beside her.

In her face he could see the nostalgia as she looked at the ruins. He couldn't help but be reminded of the Little Sister he had first seen all those years ago. She had that same glint in her eyes that Gabriella did, as if she was seeing something beautiful that the rest of the world could not. The Little Sister had been staring at the merry-go-round that had been disabled from an explosion and rusted from the leaking roof. There was no beauty left there anymore, but still she stood swaying in tempo as if she could hear the music that it once played.

He tried to keep the urgency from his voice when he softly said, "We have to leave now, Gabriella."

She sighed and he could see the lights in her eyes fading. "It's just . . . this has been the only home I have ever known."

Billy felt something break inside him from the sorrow in her voice. There was nothing he could say to console her. He didn't know how she had survived on her own in there, but however she had, she had made a home of it just like he had made a home. She turned away with a sigh and he allowed her to exit first.

They stepped outside of the curtained exit and were greeted by an open window exposing the once marvelous view of the sea and city. Gabriella walked to the glass and placed her hand on it to marvel at the sight. From what could be seen, all the buildings were still intact stretching high into the ocean and disappearing through the depth. Lights glinted through the water casting faint halos of neon light. It was rare to find beauty beneath the grime, but for a moment, Billy could still see it.

"I haven't seen the city in years," she sighed. "I wonder what's left of it now."

Billy put his hands in his pockets and joined her by the window. He wasn't quite sure how to respond. He had been living in the city for years now. There were haunting places like the Circus where mad men still ruled and killed. There were also abandoned, desolate places like where his home was located. Neither of these places were any better than the other, each signified death. He figured it was best she see for herself. "We should go. We need to find shelter before the lights dim."

He began down the long tunnel of glass that exposed the sea around them from above and on each side. She skipped quickly to catch up to his longer strides. She looked at him with a curious expression. "What happens when the lights dim?"

If he hadn't believed she had been locked inside that circus since her childhood, he had to now. Those from the surface could no longer tell night from day, so Andrew Ryan had the lights dim to simulate the night hours. For someone like Billy who had ever only known life below the sea it was an obvious change. "Splicers . . . they like the darkness. They are most active at that time . . . and most dangerous."

She was quiet for a moment, returning to watch the path before them. "I see."

Billy had not been on this side of town in years. He wasn't sure what they would encounter, but whatever it might be, he didn't want to meet it at night. He glanced up through the glass ceiling at a flashing, elegant, neon sign that read Athena's Paradise. His parents had never brought him to this place. He could even hear his mother saying now, _"It's a hotbed of sin, no place for respectful families like ours." _However the other tunnel they had always taken home had collapsed long ago.

He stopped before the doors and turned around to face her and couldn't help but stare. Without killer clowns trying to kill them, he could truly appreciate the smallness of her size. She hardly reached his chest and years of malnutrition made her slender arms and legs appear frail like fine china. Even though her dress was ripped and stained, the way it billowed around her still made her look like a child. He feared how he could possibly protect someone so small and fragile. He had done a horrible job of keeping himself alive in the circus alone, wasting bullets at the first glimpse of danger. It was only fair to warn her.

"Gabriella, I don't know what we will find in there…" he started.

She nodded and he opened his mouth to continue, but nothing came out. Instead he gripped the strap of the shotgun and sighed. "You ready?"

She nodded, the crossbow now in both hands firmly. He turned back towards the door that slid open to let them in. They were greeted with the noise of distant voices, but he couldn't see from where they came. He walked to the ledge and looked over the railing. He could see down into what must have been a sort of shopping center. He couldn't see the bottom floors as they were already flooded with water that still dripped from high above. Tables, chairs, and corpses floated within the water.

He looked up at the floors above him. Like the ones below and the floor they stood on now, they each were a square. Four walkways branched off to the center where four elevators would take the shoppers to a new floor. He could see one elevator's doors open to the empty air. Two more sat partially open to the water below with electric sparks jumping from the buttons. He couldn't see the other.

"Looks like we're going to have to take the stairs," he sighed in annoyance, noting the stairs that wrapped around the elevators leading to the next floor. "We'll have to be quick. It's too exposed. Maybe we can find some shelter in here."

"Look a map!"

Billy turned to see Gabriella examining the wall beside the door and he joined her. There was a big red X showing where they were. There was a list of stores and their location.

"We should go here," he said pointing to the words _Security Office_. "It's only two floors up."

Gabriella turned back to the open space between their floor and the elevator and stairs. "Those stairs don't look very safe."

"I'll go first," he said, although his brain was screaming he was an idiot for even considering them.

The walkway was littered in broken pieces of the missing walkway from above. Still it was steady beneath his feet. Once he had crossed he beckoned Gabriella to follow. She joined him at the foot of the ascending stairs . "I should go first. I'm smaller."

"No I will..." he started to protest but she wasn't listening.

She was already climbing the stairs that curled around the elevator. She had already reached the landing above by the time he caught up. "Gabriella, wait-"

They both jumped at the sound of shattering glass nearby. They froze to listen for approaching danger. A female's voice shouted in anger, "Damn machine! Cheating! I'll show you!"

There was more pounding from far across the room. A neon sign hung in broken pieces advertising a casino. He figured that was where the noise was coming from.

"Billy," Gabriella whispered. "Over there!"

By the time he saw what she was pointing at she was already rushing across the walkway. "Gabriella," he half whispered. She didn't turn or stop and he was afraid of alerting the splicers to their presence so he had no choice but to follow her. As he made it across the walkway she was rushing into a clothing store.

"Gabby," he half whispered half groaned as he approached the door. "Are you trying to get us killed?"

He spotted her at the over turned cash register. She turned to smile at him and said triumphantly, "Look! Money!"

She passed him the few dollar bills printed with Andrew Ryan's grimacing face when he joined her. He took it without any real joy as he began his whispered lecture, "Look I know you've been locked in that circus for some time now, but the city is real dangerous."

Gabriella's smile faded and as he spoke she moved out from around the counter with her arms crossed submissively. Her shoulders sagged, but he couldn't stifle the anger fueled by fear that kept him talking. "You cannot just go running into stores or anywhere like that! You never know what or _who_ is waiting in there!"

She didn't turn to face him as she gently thumbed through the few hanging items, "But you came charging into the circus."

"That was different," he was no longer whispering now. "I was trying to find you."

His reply was met with silence from her, and growing shouts from the casino. He couldn't make out what was being said, but he could hear the few shots from the pistol. Billy grabbed his shotgun, watching out the shop's missing door, but soon the shots and shouts were silent.

"I just need some different clothes," Gabriella whispered as the silence continued to grow. "I can't really . . . move in this dress."

He turned to look over his shoulder at her. The dress was very loose from the waist down, like a modest woman's dress should be but he knew she had a point. It was too long for running away from splicers and she could easily trip. The top was restricting to movement as well. "Alright, but make it quick so we can get somewhere safe."

She nodded before he turned back to the open doorway, shotgun still firmly in hand. He could hear her grabbing things off their hangers as he kept a watch. From the casino he could hear the binging of the machines, the swishing of slots, and the clanging of won coins growing louder. The voices were growing louder too and he could only suspect that there were more splicers now. At least there was still some form of life.

"I'm ready to go."

"Alright, let's…" he began but when he caught sight of her he was at a loss for words.

He had never seen a woman in men's clothes before. Now that he was, he could feel the blood rushing to his face, even if her style was similar to his own. Her white shirt was not as tightly restricting at the top like the dress, but the crossing suspenders seemed to highlight all the areas a modest man's eyes should not wander. The pants she wore had to have been boys, but they hugged her curves a way a dress never could. Suddenly she looked less like a child, and more like a woman.

He realized too late that she was blushing under his staring eyes, and combing the end of her ponytail nervously. "I know it's not proper clothing for a . . . lady, but killing is not proper either . . . I suppose."

He pulled himself together and looked away, but his voice was gruff when he said, "It's fine. Let's just get to the security office."

"Ok."

He made sure to survey the area well enough before leading her out of the store. As they crossed the walkway the voices and ringing from inside the casino grew increasingly louder. Billy was thankful because that meant they would not hear them as easily they made their way up the stairs.

"Wait for me here," he said as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "Let me make sure there is no one waiting to surprise us up there. Ok?"

"Ok."

He moved quickly up the stairs and peeked around the corner. Once he was done surveying the area he returned to Gabriella. "There's a security camera at the top of the stairs. We just need to avoid that and we should be ok, alright? The security office is down the hall under it."

"I thought I heard something squeaking," she frowned.

"Come on," he said, leading her to the top of the stairs.

The camera swiveled slowly side to side. The motion made a high pitch squeaking as it did so. Billy waited until its green light was pointed away from the hallway's entrance. "Now!"

They ran without detection into the hallway and didn't stop until they reached the doorway. Before they reached it though, Billy knew it was for nothing. The security door was hanging only by one hinge and caked with dried blood. A security guard's long deceased corpse lay at the door's foot. There would be no protection in there like he had hoped.

"No," he groaned as examined the non-repairable door. "We're gonna have to find another place!"

"Well," Gabriella sighed. "Maybe we can find something useful inside."

Billy said nothing, and led the way inside the cramped security office. "Looks like someone was calling this place home."

A mattress and empty cans of food littered the floor. Beside it was a wall of monitors that exposed various rooms and hallways of Athena's Paradise, although several of them were simply static. A locked wall safe was beside that.

"Look here," Gabriella pointed to a monitor.

He looked at the room that flickered in and out on the screen. There were various supplies, food, and more security monitors inside. It looked as if the room had been untouched for some time. He could see half of a bolted door on the screen's monitor. "That looks perfect, but where is it?"

Gabriella was already consulting the monitor's guide. "It's room C8 . . . that's in . . . the casino!"

More bad news. "Well that's no good."

"What," she asked taken aback. "Why not?"

"Look here," he said pointing out another monitor. "There's a least five splicers here on this floor, and here," he pointed to a second monitor, "Another three. We'd have a war on our hands if walked in there."

"What if we find some of those masks they are wearing," she suggested. "They wouldn't pay us any attention then."

"They're splicers Gabriella," he sighed. "They kill just to kill."

"You can use that . . . fire trick again."

"What fire trick," he asked.

"You know," she was looking at him incredulously now. "The one you used to kill those splicers back in the circus. I thought you said you never spliced."

The memory shocked him now. He had been too busy surviving to think about it since it had happened. He had never once bought, or even found one of the plasmids that would have given him powers like shooting fire from his hands. So how did he do it not even a few hours ago? "I never have spliced before. Did you . . . was there something else in that Eve you gave me?"

She shook her head. "That's impossible. Eve wouldn't have done anything but make you a little stronger. You would have had to taken a plasmid before."

"Well I haven't," his voice came out harsher than he had intended.

"Well if that's true," she crossed her arms and glared at him, "then how can you shoot fire from your hands?"

"I don't," he began to shout, and then calmed himself. "I don't know."

She looked at him hard for a long moment before letting out a deep sigh that relaxed her whole body. "Well however you did it, I'm sure you can do it again and maybe a little more."

"We're not going into that casino," he said firmly.

She gestured sharply towards the wall of monitors. "Well, I don't see any other options."

He looked towards the screens as she stormed across the room. She was right. There was nothing better or even half as good as what was on the screen. Most of the rooms on the screen were just wrecked shops with corpses and broken windows and doors. A few splicers roamed a few abandoned shops in search of valuables, and they didn't seem to have any firearms just rusted pipes. Still there was nowhere he would feel safe laying his head down for the night.

"I bet I can get this lock open," Gabriella said more to herself to him.

"Leave it," he said absent mindly as he reexamined the monitors. "We can't risk tripping an alarm."

"It'll be easy."

He turned to see she had disconnected the keypad exposing the wires inside and was disconnecting and reconnecting them in a different order. "What are you doing?"

"Got it!"

There was a popping noise as the sealed door unlocked itself and opened. Billy's mouth dropped open in surprise. He had tried to hack things, mostly vending machines for food, but he had never gotten the hang of it. "How did you do that?"

"It was easy," she shrugged pulling the door open. "I used to take all kind of things apart and put them back together when I was little. I had a lot of time. Hey! I bet this would help us get into the casino!"

She pulled out a gawky grenade gun and held it out to him with a smile. He took the heavy firearm from her and looked it over. It was in good condition, and fully loaded. "What else is in there?"

She began pulling stuff out and stuffing it into her own bag she had taken from the clothing shop. "Some grenades. More money! Lots of it! A two way radio. We can use that if we get separated. A map of the city! That might be helpful . . . that looks like that's it."

She turned to look at him and his stomach growled unexpectedly from hunger. "You know," she said looking back at the monitor. "I think I saw food in there."

"We're not going into that casino," he said again.

"But-"

"I'll go. You wait for me here," he said turning to leave the door.

"What? You're just gonna leave me here? With a crummy crossbow?"

"It's too dangerous for you to go-" he began but she cut him off.

"But it's safe for me to stay here alone? I'm going!"

He opened his mouth to argue, but shut it again. It wasn't safe to leave her here alone, and it wasn't safe to take her. Either way, he felt she wasn't going to listen to him and just stay behind to watch the fight on the screen. "Fine. You can come, but you have to do exactly what I say and if something happens to me-"

"Nothing is going to happen to you," she said firmly. "Let's go."

She pushed past him and he had no choice but to follow her towards the casino's doors. The whirling and buzzing was almost deafening in the dead city. His stomach rumbled in a mixture of hunger and nerves, but he still walked through the door and quickly ran to a group of slot machines for cover.

"The security office is down stairs," Gabriella whispered. "I saw the sign."

"Of course it is," he shook his head. "Just stay here and let me handle this."

"Hey! Who's there?"

Billy removed his shot gun from his back and kept low as he circled around the slot machines to the next one. He didn't think he could be spotted, but he could hear the splicer only one row over shouting, "No you don't! This is my city! MY CITY!"

He heard the cock of the pistol, and quickly stood up with shotgun in hand. At this close range all it took was one slug to silence the splicer and rile up the rest. He could see them jumping from their machines and ducking for cover too. He ducked down just in time to avoid being shot by more pistols. He peeked the barrel of his gun around the side just in time to catch another splicer in the stomach with a slug.

"Billy watch out!" Gabriella shouted.

He turned to look behind him, but it was too late. A metal pipe crashed hard against his head, making the world blur around him. As he hit the ground, the splicer that attacked him erupted into howls of pain. When the world clear he could see the splicer rolling in agony on the floor as he tried to put out the flames that burned his body.

Before he could get an upper hand on him, Billy shot him dead and quickly moved for the next row of slot machines for cover. Someone was shooting the pistol blindly over the slot machines. In rage she shouted, "If you keep doing this, I'm going to _scream_!"

The shooting stopped and he could hear the clink of bullets being put into place. He could hear another shouting for him, "This town's for winners kid and you don't smell like a winner to me! Come on out!"

The clicking stopped and Billy quickly stood at the same time the woman did. She hadn't taken aim, but his aim was close enough. He fired a shot and ducked as someone else started firing. He could hear her fall, and someone running towards him. "I earned this! Me! Me!"

"It hurts, it hurts," the woman was shrieking.

"He's there! He's there!"

Billy ran out of hiding, this time with the grenade gun in hand. Something hot and burning cut into his side, but it didn't slow him down. He pulled the trigger, pointing the gun in the direction of the most noise and dove behind the next row of machines. Fire splashed into the air, screams erupted after the boom, and then bodies hit the ground.

"I think you got them Billy," Gabriella shouted from behind.

He couldn't hear any voice from nearby, but he could hear them below. "You think you can get away with this? Get ready boys to teach 'em how things work down here!"

Billy reloaded his weapons and neared the stairs. Looking through the banister, he spotted the remaining three splicers. They were peeking over a turned card table waiting for him. He took aim and fired the grenade launcher.

"Move!"

It was too late. The grenade exploded as they tried to scramble away, but the splash was too wide. It threw their burning bodies into the air. When they hit the ground with a thud, they didn't stand back up.

"Gabby," he shouted standing up. "Come on!"

He ran down the stairs, his eyes peeled for any newcomers as she joined him. "This way," she shouted, taking off in the opposite direction.

He ran after her towards the security office sign. They rounded a corner and found the door shut at the end of the hallway. She pulled the handle, but it didn't budge. "Locked."

"There's a keypad. Think you can hack it too," he asked.

"I've never tried a door lock," she said. "Keep watch for me."

He hurried down the end of the hall and looked around the corner. It was only a moment before the door opened to let another splicer walk through. He stopped outside the door and scanned the room with his one good eye. The other eye had a bloody patch held in place by an even bloodier bandage wrapped around his head. His slacks and vest were stained with blood splatters and dirt. The side of his face with the bad eye sagged as if the skin was falling from his face.

"I must be hearing things," he said at last, moving towards the center bar. " Things . . . and rings . . . and things …"

Billy turned to see the progress Gabriella was making with the door. The wires were exposed and she was too absorbed in her work to pay attention to him. He turned back to see the splicer sitting at the bar with a drink in his hand. With a sigh he said to no one, "Time really crawls when you're alone . . . I just want some company."

He took a swig of his drink and continued to talk, staring behind the counter as if there was a face there to look at. "All I wanna do is meet someone . . . but this fucking place is poison. You gotta be rich down here to meet a lady. They don't care how nice you are. I'm good looking, can't they see that? Dress nice, smile, and be yourself. That's what the book said, and that's what I did. I sent her flowers, every day. And she always sent them back . . . You call that gratitude?!"

He slammed his now empty bottle on the counter, shattering it. The cuts in his hand didn't phase him. From behind Billy there was a snap of electricity followed by the sliding of the door. It was the yelp of pain from Gabriella that forced him to turn around.

"You sound just like her!"

Billy turned back to see the splicer with a pipe in hand running towards the hall. He ducked into the hall and waived Gabriella to go into the door. The splicer shouted, "You want me to teach you how to dance! I'm real good!"

Billy pumped the shotgun and fired as the splicer rounded the corner. It barely seemed to phase him. The powerful blast seemed to simply send him sliding backwards. The splicer jumped into the air, his brute weapon poised for the attack. Billy fired two more slugs before the splicer finally hit his knees and fell dead to the ground.

"Billy, come on!"

Billy turned away from the corpse and ran into the room after Gabriella. The door shut behind him and he could hear the locks springing into place. He turned to Gabriella, breathing hard.

"Billy," she gasped. "You're bleeding!"

He looked at his side to see blood staining his already stained white shirt. "Huh. Guess I should have had you pick me up a shirt too."

"I did," she said putting her bag on the ground and pulling out a mostly clean white shirt. "Go ahead and take off your shirt, and I'll patch up your wound."

The thought of being half naked in front of a woman sent the blood rushing to his face. "Um, no, that's not necessary. It's just a flesh wound. It's nothing."

She straightened up with a healing kit in her hand and that look on her face again. He remembered that look on his mom's face now, anytime he ever said some ridiculous lie. That look where she raised that one eye brow and half smirked, half scowled. "This isn't up for discussion. I've already seen you once, remember."

His eyes slid to his abdomen where blood still stained his shirt. "No I was unconscious for that."

Her eyes grew sharper and he knew she wasn't going to drop this. "Fine."

He pulled down his suspenders and pulled his shirt over his head. He caught her eye for a brief moment and spotted the red in her cheeks before they both quickly looked away. Was she embarrassed to see a half naked man, or because of something else.

"Let's just, um, take these old bandages off," her voice was shaky, and she was taking extra care to look at the bandages she began to unwrap. Once they were removed, he examined her stitch job from the earlier bullet. "You did a good job."

"What," she looked up in confusion, but then quickly looked away at the sight of his bare chest.

He pointed at the stitches. "Oh," she breathed. "Thanks. It's already healed. You heal . . . fast. Really fast."

His side burn and he reflexively jerked away. "Ow!"

"Sorry," she said, and continued to gently dab some cream against the wound. "So, um, Billy. Is there anyone waiting for us . . . for you to come back from . . . wherever you came from?"

"No," he said, looking everywhere except for where she was cleaning. "I've been on my own for a while now."

"Oh," she nodded, putting away the cream and staring at the wound. "Look I know we don't really . . . know each other, but . . .you don't have to lie to me."

He finally looked at her to see her looking up at him with a frown. "I'm not lying. I am alone."

"That's not what I meant," she stood up angrily, and threw the shirt at him before turning her back on him. "I'm talking about the splicing. You were shot, and the bullet hardly penetrated. And your new wound is already healed! You heal too quickly not to have spliced. You _move_ too quickly not to have spliced! And when that splicer hit you, fire just erupted from you! That only comes from splicing! I might have been locked up in that room, but I'm not an idiot!"

"I'm not lying," he shouted, throwing his shirt on the ground. "Look! Just, look."

She wouldn't turn around so he forced himself in front of her, bare chest an all. "Look at me!"

She blushed fiercely before turning back away. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. They were so close, he could feel the heat that was burning her red face. "Look at me! Look at my arms!"

He released her and turned his arms over. There were scars there, but from battles. "Splicing leaves marks. See that one there, that's from the Eve you gave me. There's nothing else. I've never spliced! I've never wanted to turn myself into a monster! I don't know how I did that stuff back there! Would you look?!"

She was just glaring at his face, but she finally look down at his arms. "What are these here? These burn marks then?"

Her fingers traced along the burn scars on his arms. The soft touch sent chills up his arms and he quickly pulled away. "They're from my mother. She spliced while she was pregnant with me. Doctor's orders. When she got mad . . . well."

"Oh, I see," Gabriella turned her back from him.

They said nothing more as he pulled the clean shirt on. When she did speak at last it was to hand him a jar, "Want some food?"

"Thanks," he said taking it and a spoon from her.

She sat down in the chair behind the desk and began to eat. It was several moments before she spoke again, "So, where do you call home?"

"My father's old shop," he said between mouthfuls.

"Where is that at?"

"You still have that map," he asked.

She nodded, searching through her bag. "Here it is."

He took it and it didn't take long to find where they were. Someone had already marked it for him. "Well here we are and here . . . here is my side of town."

She swallowed and grimaced either at the taste or the map. "That's pretty far from here. How long will it take us to get there?"

"If we can find a working train," he shrugged, "maybe a day. If not, well. I don't know."

She nodded, putting down her now empty jar with a yawn. He jerked his head in the direction of a mattress. "Why don't you get some rest, and I'll keep a look out."

She silently stood up and Billy took her spot in the chair. He stared intently at the monitor screen before him. A splicer was performing maintenance on a broken slot machine, perhaps the only shred of his humanity he had left. It was weird how they could forget who the people they loved were and kill them, but still continue to work.

"Billy?"

He turned at the sound of his name to where Gabriella was lying on the makeshift mattress. When she was sure she had his attention she asked, "How did you find me?"

Her question was met with silence. Billy wasn't sure why, but under her gaze he was unable to will himself to speak, or look away. It had been so long since he had known another person. In the dark recesses of his mind he kept toying with the possibility that he had finally lost his mind and was now imagining her entire existence.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the tape. "This."

She sat up to better look at the small tape in his hand. He reached out his hand to pass it to her, and she took it gingerly. There was nothing to identify who the tape belonged too, only the date, so he wasn't surprised when she asked, "Is it mine?"

He nodded.

"How did you know where I was," she asked passing the tape back into his hands.

"I didn't, I guessed," he said, putting the tape back in his pocket with a yawn. "I heard the music and I just figured that was the only place it could be coming from."

"Billy if you're tired," she said timidly, pulling at a string sticking up from the mattress, "you can have the mattress. You've . . . well you've been through a lot more than I have today."

"I'll be fine here, Gabriella," he said using her name just because he liked the way it rolled off his tongue. "You get some rest."

She smiled at him. "Thanks Billy, and you can call me Gabby."

He couldn't help but smile back. "Alright. Goodnight Gabby."

She lay down with a small smile. "Goodnight Billy."

* * *

Again, sorry for the changes, but they will help the story move better plot wise. Sorry for the delay posting, I'm sure a lot of you are busy with finishing the school year or just playing the new bioshock like me. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! THANKS to my wonderful twin for betaing


	7. Chapter 6 A Violent Mercy

**Thanks to any and all reviews**

* * *

**Chapter 6 A Violent Mercy**

_"The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?"_

_- Edgar Allan Poe_

_Maybe . . . Maybe I should just kill the girl and get it over with . . . That was the plan after all. _

Billy grasped through the darkness for the insensible noise, but it was as intangible as his thoughts.

_Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt . . . that was the deal. They get her, and I keep my business. _

He could feel himself slowly surfacing from the darkness of his slumber. It was as if he were walking though a dark tunnel for the light that would bring him back to the waking world, but the darkness still gripped him dragging him back into slumber.

_Well I did just that . . . took down one of those Big Daddies . . . but no one has came to collect and now I got this . . . this _monster_ staring up at me with her big . . . glowing eyes. _

His eyes opened to the desk still somewhat coated with dust. The rest of his body felt heavy, still weighted down with exhaustion. Billy soon found the source of the man's resonate voice coming from a recorder in the hands of Gabriella. She stood in the center of the room, watching the tape play. He could not see the expression on her face, but he could see the sag of her shoulders.

_I can't stand those eyes and that face . . . that face of a child that masks a monster. She's locked up now, but I can still hear her . . . singing her songs about angels. I should . . . I should just end it. It would be . . . a mercy._

There was a clicking of buttons that signified the ending of the recording. Its ending seemed to arouse her from her thoughts and she looked up to find Billy sitting up in his seat. She smiled at him and greeted him merrily, "Good morning."

His cheeks were hurting from the smile that grew on his own face. He could not remember a time when he had smiled so wide or so much, but hearing those words from her was elating. "Good morning."

She crossed the room to the desk he had slept on and placed his bag before him along with an extra one for her. "I didn't want to wake you, so I went ahead and packed some supplies. Would you like breakfast?"

He thought it was impossible, but his smile seemed to stretch even more. "Of course!"

He watched as she flashed her own brilliant smile. It was beaming and her cheeks were glowing. It was the closest he would get to seeing the sun. "Here."

She passed him a makeshift plate with preserved fruits. As he dug in she turned her attention to the monitors, leaning back against the desk to watch them thoughtfully. He glanced up occasionally through small bites of his small meal at the monitors too. There was not a lot of activity, even in the casino.

"When is the last time you had fish," he inquired, pausing to watch her response.

She looked at him thoughtful for a moment. "It has been a long time now. Mostly I survived on preservatives."

Billy finished the last bites of his meal enthusiastically. "When we get to my home, I'm going to make you a real dinner. Cooked fish, wine-"

"Really?"

She jumped up and around to face him. The excitement on her face and in her voice was contagious. He had never felt so energized. It made him feel as if he could take on a Big Daddy all by himself. He was rising from his chair as he boasted, "Yeah. I have some cooking oil, and seasoning. . ."

Her excitement had grown so much that a laugh escaped her lips. It was small, short, and made him feel lighter than air. It was as brief as a breeze of wind through the city, but it was more than enough. It alone made every moment leading up to this worth it.

"How," she bubbled with curiosity.

He opened his mouth to explain, but closed it again. "It's a surprise. I will show you when we get there."

Her green eyes locked with his blue eyes and he could see the joy burning within them. He could see his own reflection staring back. He could see his dirty blond hair, his stubbing chin, and beaming smile. It was strange how much joy there was in seeing oneself in the eyes of another.

"We should get going then," she said happily, grabbing the bags. "The sooner we get there the sooner . . ."

She froze in front of the monitor. Her sudden change in demeanor terrified Billy. "Gabby, what is the matter?"

"Look," she whispered, pointing to the monitor.

It took him a moment to see what she was pointing at. His eyes wandered over the monitor finding the few splicers asleep in makeshift shelters. Only two sat at the casino's bar asleep with alcohol in their hand. The monitor she pointed to was a camera pointed at the bottom floors flooded with water. The water level was significantly lowered exposing the once elegant walls and their advertisements that were now covered in mold and growing barnacles. Something was moving beneath the surface. It was hard to make out through the grainy image, but he could see it was a bright light. It created small waves with its movement, knocking floating corpses and tables out of the way.

"What is that," he asked moving close to the monitor.

"A Big Daddy."

A grunt of annoyance escaped his lips as the lighted helmet broke the surface. "A Rumbler."

Next to his helmet was the round rocket launcher that all Bid Daddies adorned. His ironed body armored in a special diving suit followed as he climbed up the ascending stairs and disappeared from the screens. Gabriella caught Billy's eyes. "Do you think he's looking for a Little Sister?"

He nodded in agreement. "What else would he be doing?"

She turned back to the monitor with flushing cheeks. Her voice was husk when she announced, "I haven't seen a Big Daddy in years. Look! There he is."

The massive man appeared again before a vent that must have been hidden beneath the water before. It's golden sun was rusted now and molding. Billy grabbed his own bag from the desk. "We should leave before war breaks out."

She turned away from watching his progression. "What do you mean?"

He strapped his shotgun in place and eyed the grenade gun wearily. It was bulky and rattled when he picked it up. It would be too much to carry, and too noisy for movement, but it might be needed if they didn't get out on time. "Splicers kill for Little Sisters. We don't want to get caught in the cross fires."

She looked back at the monitor with a frown as the distant echo of the Big Daddy's pounding began. They could see him pausing, waiting. The pounding began again and Billy could already see the splicers awakening on the other floors. His pounding stopped and again he waited. Billy couldn't help but hold his breath hoping a child would not crawl out of the vent. The Rumbler was rewarded when the glowing eyes peeked out of the darkness.

"In my room, Little Sisters used to find me and then for a long time they were gone. I thought they had all grown up or . . . maybe they even escaped. I didn't think I'd ever see another one. Then one found me. . . and then you came."

She turned her powerful green eyes upon him and there was something in her gaze. There was something implied there, some hidden question, but he couldn't answer her. He began to retreat towards the door. "Let's go Gabby."

She took one last look at the monitor where the Big Daddy was gently lifting the child from the vent before following. She was silent as he led her from the room and through the hall. The silence was intensified now that there were no more splicers playing the ringing slot machines. Billy peeked around the corner at the still sleeping splicers. Not even the banging had awoken them.

"Come on," he whispered.

They were careful to move quietly as they crept around the bar and towards the exit. He kept turning his head towards the sleeping splicers, but they didn't make a movement. As they got closer to the exit, he strained his ears for even a hint of them awakening but all he heard was silence. The door began to slide open for them to leave.

"Aaa," Gabriella stifled her scream as a threatening roar greeted them.

The firing of guns from below quickly followed. From behind them the sleeping splicers sprung into action. Billy grabbed Gabriella's small hand and dragged her out of the doorway and the splicer's way. They rushed through the door, pistol and pipes in hand, but they didn't seem to notice Billy and Gabriella.

They jumped over the ledge without any hesitation. Billy screamed after Gabriella as she rushed over to the ledge as well. "Gabby! Wait!"

She ignored his call, peering over the side and into the floors below. Billy followed, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the side but he couldn't help but see what was stirring below. The Little Sister had begun her gathering from a corpse on a walkway just above the floating water. It was too exposed for the Big Daddy and splicers were targeting him from all floors now.

"Billy, we should help him!" Gabriella urged.

"No," he corrected her. "We should escape! Where was that exit on your map."

Gabriella looked up the floors above. "It's floor seven."

"Come on," he said taking her hand again and leading her towards the closest walkway.

"Billy it's two floors up," she shouted. "The splicers-"

"Are busy with the Big Daddy," he interrupted her. "We just got to- ah! "

His words turned into a shout as an explosion shook the walkway and sent them falling. From above a walkway crumbled, raining broken pieces upon them. He moved quickly to cover Gabriella from the falling chunks that beat into his back. He could feel her shrinking in on herself, becoming smaller. Despite the danger, he couldn't help but be aware of her proximity, of the way her body tensed with each breath and suddenly relaxed. He could hear a water fall and as soon as he dared he looked up to see what he feared.

"No," she breathed, still pressed beneath him. "The exit . . ."

The only walkway that had still stood to lead to floor seven was now in pieces. Water was pouring from above like a small waterfall from the now wider hole in the ceiling. He stood, pulling Gabriella to her feet as he stared at their only escape. The gap was just wide enough that they might, just might make it. Even as he thought that, the ground beneath them shuddered with another explosive blast. Shouts rang out in pain and he could hear the splash of bodies being thrown into the water below.

"He's tearing this place apart!" She cried.

Billy glanced at the Rumbler who was shooting yet another rocket into the landings above, while grabbing a splicer by the head and slamming him violently into the ground. "We are going to have to take him out."

"What," Gabriella gasped. "No! The Little Sister-"

"She will run away," Billy interrupted, noting how the Big Daddy was already slowly retreating to the vent.

Gabriella shouted something at him, but another explosion ripped through her words. He could hear the glass creaking from the weight above. "Stay here," he commanded. "Try to take out as many of the splicers as you can."

"No Billy," she clamored, grabbing his arm to stop him. "Please don't! He's a Big Daddy . . . he's all she has."

There was a terrible ripping sound from above. The rushing of water told Billy without him having to look that the hole was growing wider. "If we don't take that Big Daddy out, he's going to take _us_ out. Go on to the seventh floor." He pulled his arm away from her forcefully.

Ignoring her screams of protest, he jumped onto the walkway below. A splicer aiming over the railing glanced over his shoulder at Billy. With the grenade gun in hand all it took was a forceful blow to the splicer's face to send him over the side. Billy didn't pause, hearing the bone shattering crunch as the splicers body smacked into marble flooring below.

Off the walkway he took aim over the floor's railing at the Big Daddy and fired to grenades. There was a rumbling groan of agitation from the Rumbler and a shriek from Gabriella above. "No!"

The Rumbler fired a final rocket at the nest of splicers only a floor above him. The floor crumbled beneath the explosive, sending the screaming splicers falling to the ground below. When they didn't stand, the Rumbler turned his attention to Billy.

"Billy stop, please," Gabriella cried out from somewhere high above.

He glanced up, seeing her widen and tearful green eyes pleading with him from high above. Before they could have their effect though he caught glimpse of the branching cracks in the roof. They were spreading now like the widening hand of a skeleton. The glass screeched, sending a chilling pain through Billy, as the web grew wider.

He heard a click beside him and looked down. The Rumbler had thrown a mini torrent onto the walkway. Its spider like legs stuck into the floor with a menacing crunch. The head sprung up with a barrel pointed on Billy and red lights. He dived behind the railing for cover just as it began firing.

Even if the Big Daddy couldn't see him, it was obvious he wasn't going to give up. There was another explosion so close it drowned out Gabriella's warning cry and the mini torrent's bullets. The ground beneath gave a violent shake as the boom silenced and left his ears ringing. Billy put down the grenade gun, unable to hear the world properly around him now.

He could hear Gabriella shouting out to him as if from miles and miles away. He could hear the Rumbler's muffled, threatening moan. The Little Sister was speaking, but her voice too sounded, indiscernible as if hearing it through the water. Bullets ripped through the air, their sound dulled and then silenced. He quickly stood up and fired two slugs from his shotgun at the torrent to take it down.

He could see the Big Daddy with the Little Sister in hand, lifting her into the vent as water began to pool on the floor beneath his boots. Billy took his distraction as a chance to run to the stairs. Water was pouring down heavier now from more than one place. He ran through cold, pouring water and onto the next floor.

He moved quickly to the next flight of stairs. The Rumbler bellowed out in rage just as he began to reach to next floor. An explosion sounded off just beneath his feet, the force sending him crashing into the stairs. He was vaguely aware of the pain as he quickly moved to stand again. He could hear the shriek of glass as another hole grew wider and the water rushed fervently to flood the building. He rounded the elevator's open shaft, out of view from the Big Daddy, and readied his grenade gun. As he came out from the corner onto the sixth floor he fired two rockets blindly into the open air beneath. They found their target he knew although he didn't pause to watch. He could hear the splashing explosion mixed in with Gabriella's shouts of protest and the Big Daddy's final cry of pain.

It was a cry he had heard many times before through the halls of Rapture. It was a lament of pain mixed with sorrow. It was a cry that haunted Billy in his memories, in his dreams. It was a cry he had first heard as a child of eight by that merry-go-round when his life changed forever. The lament of sorrow was echoed in Gabriella's own cry.

It was filled with such pain, with such regret, it froze Billy at the foot of the stairs that lead to the final floor where she waited. He caught her staunch, white face peering over the ledge. She gripped the ledge as if it was the only thing holding her in place. Her grip was so tight her knuckles were as white as her face. Her cold eyes locked with his. The bitterness he found there had turned her warm, green eyes, to ice.

Then the look was gone as she flung herself away from the ledge of the walkway, and ran towards the gap. "Gabby, no!" He moved with a new swiftness, taking the stairs by two as he raced up to the walkway.

By the time he reached the gapping walkway, she had already made the leap to the seventh floor. "Gabby! Wait!"

She didn't turn to face him as she raced towards the exit. "Stay away!" Her words were bitter, cold, and angry. They only made him move faster. With fury he pushed off the edge of the walkway and landed hard on the other side of the gap. She was already rushing through the open exit as he gathered his speed again. "Gabriella!"

The horrible screech of shattering glass and the crashing of water drowned out his words. The force was enough to send him stumbling. He fell to his hands and knees and caught a glimpse of the ocean angrily taking back its home. There was something terrifying about the ferocity with which it crashed down into the building. There was something more dreadful in the screams that erupted from the rooms below.

Their heart wrenching screams of terror froze Billy. There was something coldly gripping about their desperate wails as the waters crashed over them. The whole thing, the crashing water, the piercing wails coldly gripped at the memories he had pushed down and brought them up for him to relive again. The flooding waters swelling around him and rising above the merry-go-round, his mother's desperate cries for help that would not come, hundreds of desperate cries that grew into one never ending scream, and death. Death all around him, in every corner, in every shadow! Everywhere!

The icy water was already pooling at his knees and fingers. Its icy water snapped him back to the present and away from those memories of Dionysus Park. He forced himself to his feet and ran with a desperate speed he had not known he was capable of. Splashes of water caught the now blinking lights and sprinkled the air around him like glitter. He ducked under the now frozen door as water raised rapidly to his knees.

"Gabriella!" His cry was unanswered as he waded through the rising water in the tunnel.

He reached the exit just in time for it to open one final time. He heard it shut and lock against the ocean's water to stop its take over. He didn't have time to take in the scene around him. He could already see Gabriella far across the open room towards another exit. "Gabby!"

"Don't come near me!"

The door slid open for her and she disappeared into the hollow tunnel behind it. He pushed off after her. His wet clothes stuck to his skin and weighed him down. It felt like an eternity had passed before he reached the door and ran into the empty tunnel. A still lit sign pointed him in the direction of a hotel and he followed it towards the next door that easily slid open to let him through.

He paused in the doorway. Gabriella stood with her back to him on the other side of the room. He could hear her heavy breathing as she pounded against the unlit button that called the elevator.

He took a timid step forward, but her voice filled with rage and sorrow stalled him. "Stay away."

"Gabby-"

"No."

She turned towards him. Even from across the room he could see the mixture of sorrow and anger in her expression. He still came forward even though her looked warned him not too. "Gabby, I don't understand. The Little Sister is safe, we had to take out the Big Daddy-"

"No we didn't," she interrupted. "We could have let him live!"

He paused at the foot of small flight of stairs that led to the elevators. He could see the anger in every line of her face, but he couldn't understand why. The Little Sister was safe. She had seen him kill before. Why was this different?

"He was still . . ." she began but lost her words. "We didn't have to . . . "

She slowly fell to her knees, collapsing under the grief and exhaustion. She stared at the floor as she spoke quietly, "There was still a man under all that armor. An innocent man who only wanted to protect a child!"

Billy climbed the few steps that separated them and slowly lowered himself to the ground. He kept his voice soft as he spoke, "He wasn't a man anymore, Gabby. He couldn't have been saved."

"You don't know that," she snapped. "Little Sisters can be saved, can be turned human again! Why can't a Big Daddy be too?"

She glared at him defiantly, but he could see the longing in her eyes. The longing to have an answer, to just know why. He knew he probably shouldn't but he reached a comforting hand out to her. She let him rest it on her shoulder, but her expression did not change. "There is no man left to save Gabby. You could not separate his body from that suit to save him. You could not restore his mind to save him. Whatever man he used to be was already dead."

As he spoke he could see the anger softening into sorrow. The tears in her eyes she had been fighting back slowly began to break free. Each drop was like a stab to Billy's own heart. "So then, it was mercy in a way . . . to finally let his soul rest."

Her voice broke as she spoke, letting the grief slip through her words. The heartbreak sound knocked the breath out of Billy leaving him feeling as if he was drowning in her tears. It was a moment before he could breath to answer her. "I suppose it was."

She nodded, the tears flowing without resistance now. He couldn't find more words to say. There was no escape from death in Rapture. He could not think of any words that could comfort her, so he said none. Instead he gathered her closer and allowed her to weep onto his shoulder. Each shudder of her body, each sob, was like a piece of his own heart being ripped violently into pieces.


	8. Chapter 7 Empty Houses

**Chapter 7 Empty Houses**

_"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. __Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." __– Martin Luther King, JR _

"What do you think happened to them?"

Billy didn't turn away from the trunk he was rummaging through in hopes of finding supplies. "Who?"

"The couple who lived here." Gabby's voice had his full attention now.

He turned to see she was wearing the same expression he had been noticing the past two days now. It had not taken her long to stop the tears the other day after he killed the Big Daddy. She had pulled herself together quickly and pushed him away gently. Even now he couldn't help but flinch at the memory of that gesture.

Then she had told him they needed to keep moving, and that was the last thing she had said to him. She took the lead, being the one who had the map. They had wondered through a dozen or more buildings. Some were as silent as the corpses that littered the ground, but others echoed with whispers throughout the shadows.

"Maybe they escaped?" He offered the unbelievable explanation.

She shook her head, staring at the burnt picture frame. He had seen that expression so many times now. At first it had seemed innocent. The way she would suddenly pause as they walked into a new building or new room and gasp like the sight had knocked the breath from her; he had attributed this to having been locked up so long. He thought it must have been because she had seen nothing but that circus and those four walls.

"They looked so in love."

Billy joined her side and examined the picture. It was of their wedding day. Her hair was bobbed and pinned with sparkling diamonds. His hair was darker and slicked back. She was right. Even through the grimy glass their smiles were dazzling, but not as dazzling as Gabby's green eyes. He couldn't help but stare at them. They were almost glowing. Their vibrant green enchanting. He wondered to himself if all living eyes looked this way, it had been so long since he had last seen an undamaged pair.

"I don't think they escaped." She finally sighed and as her eyes slid away, he could see the light fading.

She left the living room that held toppled furniture and was covered in ash with a sigh. He followed, with one final look at the picture, out into the apartment complex. They had spent the previous night here taking turns keeping watch, but like the prior night nothing eventful had occurred.

Once he had joined her, she pointed out the exit. "There's more apartments on the other side. Once we pass through we should find a train station. Hopefully it will still be in working condition."

Billy nodded, noting how she was careful to keep her eyes averted from his face. "Let's get going then."

She followed him silently down into the atrium and towards the exit. With an effort he decided to attempt conversation. "So, Gabby . . . What do you do for uh, fun?"

"Fun," she repeated the word as if it were foreign to her. "Here? In Rapture?"

"Before all this," he quickly added, waiving at the ruins behind them.

They entered into the tunneled walkway. She looked behind her one last time, before looking back at him. "I really don't remember a time before all this."

"When you were a kid?"

She just looked at him puzzled before starting down the long, winding tunnel. Her voice was empty when she responded. "I don't remember being a 'kid'."

"Well, what about your parents? Do you remember them?"

"No," she responded rather quickly and they lapsed into silence.

Even though he could not see her face, his eyes remained glued to the back of his head. When he first met her so much adrenaline had been pumping from finding another living, sane, human and trying to survive. The past few hours had been calm and quiet, giving his brain time to turn over the mystery of her in his head.

He knew nothing about her save her name was Gabby. He couldn't figure out how she had survived locked in that room so long, other than someone must have had helped her. He wasn't sure how old she was, not that he was one hundred percent sure how old he was either, or the current date for that matter. Then there was that look that she was once again wearing.

They had entered the next set of apartments and as the door slid open, Gabby sighed in awe. Her green eyes were shinning, her face flushed as her eyes greedily swept the area. Billy's eyes followed her gaze and he grimaced at the sight.

The center of the room housed grizzly scene. A fountain ran red with blood, decayed corpses still floating in its murky water. Scorched trees, one with a still hanging corpse, stretched up from the ground that framed the pool. The rest of the lobby area was also painted with death. Blood stains, corpses, rusted weapons, and broken strollers littered the floors.

He eyed the exit on the opposite side of the room that would take them to the train station. With a gentle nudge he pointed it out to Gabby. "Come on, let's go."

She moved to follow him down the flight of stairs into the lobby. The light in her eyes had faded, yet she continued to watch the still golden, glittering door that would lead into the apartments. Billy couldn't be sure what called her eyes there, but the closer they drew the more entranced she had become.

"Gabby-" he started, but his words were cut off from the piercing screech of a crow.

It was distant, yet still near enough to cause a panicked glow in Gabby's eyes. She looked up at Billy with so much terror it seized him too. "The Ring Master."

He grabbed her hand, and pulled her towards the golden door. It opened onto silence, blood, and flickering lights. The blood was fresh, making his feet slip as he pulled her down the hall way. He grabbed for the wall to keep from falling and something cut across it his hand.

He knew it was a bad idea. Fresh blood meant a fresh kill, and that meant the murderer was probably still nearby, but he could hear the flapping of wings now and what they would bring with them seemed more terrifying than the idea of crossing one splicer. He led her up spiral stairs and onto the second floor's landing.

Every door save one in the hallway was open or unhinged. A door lay on the floor nearby and Billy released Gabby's hand and grabbed at it. She immediately busied herself with hacking a coded door lock at the end of the hall as he barricaded the landing's opening with the door. For support he added some broken tiles and ceiling.

"Billy," Gabby whispered. "In here!"

He followed her inside and sealed the door shut behind them. Even in this room, far back from lobby's entrance, he could still hear the muffled fluttering of hundred of wings, then suddenly it was silenced. The room was dark. Only small rays of light filtered through the cracks between the boards nailed over the window.

Billy rushed to the window in hopes he could see. Through the cracks he could see nothing more the walls of the lobby. Corals ran up and down the walls showing the ocean's attempt to reclaim its space. He moved to the next window that only offered the same view.

It was the boarded window in the dinning room that offered him a view of the lobby below. He could see the hundreds of crows perched from various ledges. In the center, his yellow eyes scanning the apartment building, was the Ring Master. His black tuxedo looked new, clean, and without so much as a wrinkle. His black top hat was in his hands as if had been obscuring his view. Only his half face, masquerade mask told of violence and death through the splattered blood stains.

"You've seen no one come through here," the Ring Master's voice was calm, casual.

"No," a gruff voice answered. "What's it to ya'?"

Billy couldn't see the speaker, but The Ring Master's yellow eyes had shifted to where he must have been standing. The gruff voice spat angrily, "Have your smelly ass clowns let me go would ya'!"

The Ring Master nodded his head, and after a few moments Billy could see a Splicer making his towards the Ring Master. "Think ya' smelly birds scare me huh?"

He bent and picked up a crude pipe and pointed it threateningly at the Ring Master. "Think ya can jus' walk inta' my part of town and sick your ugly clowns on me and get away wit'it? You got anotha' thing comin'!"

He moved as if to strike the Ring Master. In one swift, simultaneous movement the birds opened their wings and swept down onto the splicer. As their black bodies swarmed him, screams of agony and pleas of mercy erupted. Billy could hear a sick groan escape Gabby before the screams were silenced.

The black cloud of swarming birds thinned as they returned silently to their perch. Lying at the Ring Master's feet was a bloodied body that was now unrecognizable. The sight made Billy's stomach churn.

"Zeke, Pax," the Ring Master snapped at someone Billy could not see. "My Ella is out here in this city! My precious Ella! Find her!"

"Yes Master," two voices uttered simultaneously as the crows swarmed their master and disappeared.

Billy pulled away from the window and returned to where Gabby sat in the darkness. Keeping his voice low he informed her, "The Ring Masters gone. I don't think he even realizes we are here, but he has his goons searching for someone. Lets stay the night here, until the coast is clear."

She nodded in agreement and he returned to the window to watch. The two men had left the area soon after the Ring Master and all was quiet. The lights dimmed several hours later, and still no soul had returned. He turned away from the window to find Gabby sitting next to a lighted lamp in the den.

The room looked untouched by the fall of Rapture, but not by time. A thick layer of dust lay over the tarnishing furniture. The elegant wall paper was unstained, but faded. The warm, brown carpet was still intact. The coffee table before the couch still held delicate laced dollies and ivory candle stick holders. There was no blood. There were no unsightly corpses. It was just an empty home.

Gabby sat staring at the door in the corner of the room. Without taking her eyes off the door she said gravely to him, "Places like this is what makes me the saddest."

"What do you mean?" He sat down on the recliner that was soft, but a thick cloud of dust floated into the air.

"Places like this makes me think of what could have been, and that is the saddest thing of all. All those dreams, all those lives, wasted. . ."

He looked to the walls that still hosted an arrangement of untouched photographs. Unfamiliar faces smiled happily down at them from the walls. Their lives, their smiles, now a secret that was lost to time and death. For the second time Gabby asked him, "What do you think happened to them?"

"I'd rather not think about it." But it was too late; the thought was already on his mind. The young couple that smiled down from him from the walls, and up at him from the coffee table were already in his mind. He imagined them trying to return home from work one day, or shopping together when it happened. Whatever that tragic event was that took their lives from them, he was sure it had happened and they never made it back.

"This place could have been a real home," Gabby went on. "A home with children. They would have laughed together. Sat on this couch together and played games with their children. They would have eaten together as a family at the dinning table. Then they would have put them to bed and kissed them goodnight. It is what could have been that makes me saddest. It's these empty homes."

She finally took her eyes off the doors and looked at Billy. If she was hoping he would say something, she was disappointed. He seemed unable to find his voice. At last she broke the eyes contact and left the room. After a few moments he followed her.

She had lit an oil lantern in the dining area and had set jars of preserved food down on the table. The room looked untouched by the fall of Rapture. Even more pictures hung from the walls here. A life had been made here. Dreams had been made here. Suddenly Billy felt more like an intruder than someone simply trying to survive.

He sat down silently in the chair across from her and took his food. As they ate he watched as Gabby's eyes shifted from one dusty picture to the next

"I used to write stories." Gabby announced, then seeing his confusion added, "for fun."

He was intrigued. "Stories about what?"

"The people of Rapture. What their lives would have been like . . . in happier times," she explained. "I would write about families, about weddings. . . About falling in love. . . having children. Happy things. I didn't usually have paper, or ink, but I would have paint. I would write on the walls until I didn't have space anymore . . . What do you do for fun?"

"I read."

He could see from the smile on her face she was intrigued. "Sometimes," she whispered as if she were about to tell him a secret, "when the little sisters would find me through the vent, they would bring me a book, but sometimes they were ruined. They were wet or partially burned, or pages would be missing, but I would read as much of it as I could. What is your favorite?"

"I don't know." He shrugged, being honest. "There's so many…"

"So many?" she repeated his words with excitement and curiosity. "How many books have you read?"

"Well I stopped counting after a hundred."

"A hundred!"

She put her half eaten food aside as if her newfound excitement had was enough substance for her body. Her eyes were bright with a smile that was spread wide across her face. Billy could feel himself being engulfed by her enthusiasm. He loved it. He decided he would try everything in the world to keep her smiling.

"I have hundreds of books in my home." He informed her and he could see as she moved her chair closer to him, hanging on his every word. "Maybe even a thousand."

"A thousand," she repeated breathlessly.

"I have one with me now- in my bag."

"You do!" She stood up excitedly. "Can I see it?"

He nodded and she wasted no time in rushing to his bag and bringing it back to him. He opened it and began rummaging through the ammunitions, weapons, supplies, and food until his hands clasped on the small, leather book.

He pulled it out and showed Gabby who was staring at it in awe. It was dull to look at, he had always thought, but once he found it, it had never left his side. His mother had given it to him once he was born, and it was always hidden in a drawer by his bed's side.

"What is it," she asked. "It has no title."

"That's because it is a Bible."

She gasped and moved to sit beside him. "That's impossible! Andrew Ryan had all the ones he found burned!"

"He never found this one." Billy smirked.

"Can I read it?" Her voice was so full of excitement and an almost pleading.

He eyed her half eaten food. "How about I read it to you while you finish eating."

She nodded excitedly, grabbing her jar and watching him with eyes full of anticipation. He opened the book and smiled at the memory of his father reading aloud.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw the light was good."

He looked up to see Gabby's expression. He wasn't sure, would she like this? So many people who had come to Rapture was trying to escape God and government, and then again so many had been yearning for both by the fall. He was pleased to see she was smiling at him, but there was something else in her eyes. Yearning.

"I hope one day we will see the light." She whispered.

* * *

Yay for filler chapters! Thanks to Twin for the awesome quote and for editing so the chapter becomes whole. How I love my Billy and Gabby! (Note I do not own Billy in anyway- or any other recognizable characters in case you weren't aware. They belong to irrational games!) If you enjoy, let me know!


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